Linda C. (bocce) reviewed on 8/29/2009 + 5 more book reviews

I found this book to be a clunker in so many ways. The story of two "misfit" kids who bond is nothing new. Addie, like her mother, is obese and her father is a damaged Viet Nam vet who doesn't have a 9-5 job. Valerie has the addled brained, whacked out mother who is more a love child than a mother. The mystery of the book is what happened in High School to tear these two BFF apart. Then the two are grown up, Val a TV weather girl and Addie an overweight recluse. Val mysteriously shows up on Addie's doorstep with blood on her and then you begin to unravel the mystery. So, there are basically two stories: one of their childhood and the second, what happened to Val on the night in question and the consequences. The childhood focus is far better written and developed than the second part. One can easily feel Addie's discomfort and loneliness. How she, by happenstance, becomes the caretaker of her brother and then her slowly disappearing within herself. The part with Addie and Val and Dan Swansea, the guy in the mystery part , seems disjointed, as if the author couldn't figure out what to do with the storyline. If Val so wanted the anchor job at the TV station, why is she trying to pull off a bank robbery? I didn't like Val as a person. She was vapid and manipulative. The ending was a disaster. The police chief, who pines wildly for his ex wife, then becomes immediately besotten with Addie, while she's pregnant with another man's child. And Dan finds God. It just was not believeable. I actually put the book down not intending to finish it. But I just can't do that. I wish I had left it alone...

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