She Treads Softly: I'll Tell You Everything

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

I'll Tell You Everything

I'll Tell You Everything by Rebecca Kelley
1/14/25; 267 pages
Lake Union Publishing

I'll Tell You Everything by Rebecca Kelley is a so-so domestic drama.

Amy Linden is married to Jonathan and the two have a son, Gabe. Amy and Jonathan own and manage a grand mountain lodge. Twenty-five years ago Amy gave up her daughter for adoption, a secret she has kept for years. When her daughter Ramona Crawford pays Amy a visit at the Lodge, wanting to know her birth story and the identity of her biological father, it threatens Amy's current life.

The slow-paced plot unfolds from the point-of-view of Amy and Rebecca. Most of the chapters are set in the present, but some of Amy's chapters are set in the past, telling the story of what happened years ago. Quickly you will realize Amy is an unreliable narrator and she doesn't want to tell Ramona the truth. Ramona's adoptive mother has been diagnosed with cancer, which is what compels her to keep pushing Amy for the true story.

This plot moved too slowly for me and I struggled with caring about these characters. Honestly, I didn't care for either of them so I never became invested in the secrets, lies, or emotional state of the characters. It is a short novel. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.