Book: You Were Here
Book: You Were Here
Author: Gian Sardar
Genre: Fiction/Historical/Thriller
Summary: Death, accidental and early, has always been Abby Walters’s preoccupation. She’s thirty-three and eager to settle down with her commitment-shy boyfriend when an old recurring dream returns: a paralyzing nightmare of being buried alive, the taste of dirt in her mouth suffocating and real. But this time the dream reveals a name: Claire Ballantine, a woman from her family’s past. Looking for answers, and to stop the nightmares, Abby returns home to Minnesota for the first time in fourteen years, where she reconnects with her high school crush, Aiden, now a detective on the trail of a violent criminal. When Abby tries on her grandmother’s diamond ring, which she always dreamed would be hers, she discovers a cryptic note hidden beneath the ring box’s velvet lining. What secret was her grandmother hiding? Could this be the key to what’s haunting Abby? In 1948, young Eva Marten can’t believe her luck when she meets William, a handsome businessman who sees that she’s more than her meager farm-town roots. Their passionate love affair is only the beginning - or at least it will be, Eva knows, once he leaves his distant, upper-class wife, Claire. Eva’s love for William and determination to follow her heart sweeps them both off their feet, pushing Eva and Claire to a chilling confrontation. An ill-fated love triangle in the past. A horrifying crime in the present. Mesmerizing twists and a long-buried secret that may finally rise to light. You Were Here weaves together two worlds separated by decades, unveiling just how much lurks beneath the surface of our lives. -Putnam, 2017.
For my first book of 2020, I chose a book that had been on Penguin’s Advanced Reader program (it has been retired as of last year) and I didn’t get to read it. The summary intrigued me so I decided to get it anyway.
I’m going to say this upfront. If you’re intrigued by the book because of the mystery/thriller aspect, don’t read this. This book is one of those stories where it’s about the journey, not the destination. It’s all about character development and growth. The thriller/mystery aspect is only a side thread and a hook to get you interested. You will be disappointed if you have other expectations.
I also have a problem with the writing. This feels like the fifth book I’ve encountered the author being encouraged to indulge her wish to be like Virginia Woolf - and I hate it. Sardar writes her scenes via sentence fragments. For example, instead of simply writing something like, “The pungent scent of bacon grease and fried eggs filled the air as Lawrence and Avery sat on plastic covered stools, their shoes scuffing the linoleum floor.”, she writes: “Bacon grease and fried eggs. Stained linoleum. Fragmented plastic on paper menus.” That’s all to describe a diner. For me, that kind of writing belongs in a high school writing club. It’s pretentious; especially if she was trying to write a thriller. Some things need to be concrete. They need to be spelled out. There were a few moments where I was left scratching my head because what happened wasn’t clear enough. There’s a difference between deliberate ambiguity and pretentious ambiguity. The author isn’t doing it because the story calls for it - they’re doing it because they want to be smarter than you. That attitude doesn’t win any devoted fans.
If you read the two plots as simple fiction stories instead of one entwined thriller, they’re alright; not terrible. I’m just not a fan of the writing style or the bait and switch for the genre being advertised. The ending is also unsatisfying, but that’s the author’s choice.
I give You Were Here a C+.
~*~
You can support the author by buying the book or by borrowing it from a friend or your local library.
Thanks for reading!
