She Treads Softly: The Vacation

Saturday, December 9, 2023

The Vacation

The Vacation by John Marrs
12/19/23; 464 pages
Hanover Square Press

The Vacation by John Marrs is a highly recommended psychological thriller. This is the third re-release of The Vacation. It was originally titled Welcome to Wherever You Are.

At a beach-front hostel in Venice Beach, Los Angeles, eight strangers all have secrets and are running away from something. Tommy was traveling with a friend and ended up at the hostel. He works at the reception desk. Savannah is a pole dancer who is always looking over her shoulder. Nicole and Eric are friends and work colleagues from the UK who have traveled all of Route 66 and are looking to find something. Matty and Declan are two best friends from Ireland who appear to be just looking for a good time. Ruth is a quiet Australian woman who has come to Los Angeles to meet her favorite movie star. Jake is an adventurer who has been traveling the world. Seemingly always around, Peyk, is a handyman at the hostel who may be the only one who sees people and events as they really are.

The writing is excellent and Marrs keeps the pace moving quickly with short chapters. The backgrounds and secrets in the stories of the characters are carefully and slowly revealed in the narrative, and they are not predictable. The cast of characters may be large, but they are clearly portrayed as individuals with unique personalities, interests, and secrets, so it is easy to keep track of who is who. The characters are interesting and all very different. Some portrayals are over-the-top caricatures, especially Savannah's father, as are some of the big twists, but everything works together for an entertaining novel.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Hanover Square Press via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.