Review: The Coordinates Of Loss (by Amanda Prowse)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

This is the second book I've read by Amanda Prowse and just like the one I read last year (The Idea of You), I struggled with getting through this and once again, very nearly DNF'ed it.  I'm not sure what it is, but I find it hard to connect with this author's books, even though the subject matter she writes about are things that women in my age group are usually able to identify with.  In this, her newest book, the main character is Rachel Croft, whose happily married, blissful life with husband James comes crashing down when they lose their 7-year-old son Oscar in a boating accident – this happens within the first few pages of the book and from there, the entire rest of the story (300+ pages) is about how Rachel attempts to deal with her grief and eventually embarks on a path to healing after reading letters of encouragement from her housekeeper Cee Cee.  That is basically the entire plot (no, I am not exaggerating – I'm struggling with finding things to write about the plot because literally nothing much else happens)…

Given the subject matter, I was expecting an emotional, heart-wrenching story, one that would move me emotionally and even make me shed a tear or two…but that didn't happen.  In fact, I found it difficult to get into the story at all and after the first chapter, my attention already started to wane – about a quarter into it, I felt the urge to skim and by the halfway mark, I was in full-on "speed-skim" mode….by the time I got to the end, I was relieved that I FINALLY finished the book.  The biggest issue for me (which was actually the same issue I had with this author's previous book) is that the story dragged way too much – over the course of the first 150 pages or so, page after page was of Rachel either 1) repeatedly denying that her son had died and trying to justify her theories about her son's whereabouts in every way possible, or 2) constantly arguing with and resenting her husband.  The second half of the book was basically of Rachel's healing process and eventually coming to terms with her son's death.  Now don't get me wrong – I have no problems with the subject matter being heavy and yes, I do understand that the slowness of the plot was perhaps intentional in order to mirror the real life process of grieving and healing that occurs when we lose a loved one, but for me, the execution was too drawn out, to the point that I felt it diminished the significance of the story.  While the writing was good overall, there were parts that were tremendously wordy --  also, the dialogue was repetitive in that every conversation felt drawn out for the purposes of justifying and explaining Rachel's every thought, feeling, action, etc.  Perhaps the purpose of writing the character this way was to make us as the readers feel sorry for Rachel and sympathize with her struggle – I hate to say it but for me, it had the opposite effect in that I grew increasingly irritated with her character as the story wore on.  I honestly feel like the story would have been better told if it had been several hundred pages shorter, with tighter writing and less repetition. 

Reading this book confirmed for me that, plain and simple, this author's works just aren't my cup of tea.  I will give her future works a pass going forward but since mine is the lone negative review amongst the dozens of positive ones, I would once again recommend checking out the other reviews for a more balanced perspective.  This one clearly didn't work for me, but perhaps it will for others.

Received ARC from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley.

Review: The Idea of You (by Amanda Prowse)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

This book started out as a 3 star ("ok" read, not great but not horrible either), but a chapter or so in, it went down to 2 stars and truth be told, by the time I reached the halfway mark, I was so annoyed with the way the story was going that I was tempted to DNF the book right then and there. But not being one to abandon a book in the middle of reading unless there is a truly compelling reason, I stuck with it and ended up speed-reading through the rest of the book so I could get through it as quickly as possible (and move on to other books that I might actually enjoy reading). While the last 20% or so of the book – including the ending – didn't turn out as bad as I thought it would, the damage had already been done in that I was already annoyed with 80% of the book, so I couldn't really bring myself to raise my rating to anything more than 2.5 stars.

For me, what irritated me most about this book were the characters, mostly the main character Lucy and (to some extent) her husband Jonah. I was not able to identify with Lucy at all, which I found quite ironic given the fact that certain aspects of the character's life (prior to her marriage) paralleled my own – namely, Lucy's position in the beginning of the story where she is a career-driven woman who, finding herself still single as she approaches her 40s, begins to seriously contemplate what role marriage and children have in her future. The difference, of course, is that Lucy is "crazily" obsessed with wanting to be a mother and to have a baby of her own that she can dote on (in her own words, she was "desperate to be a mother"), to the point that it basically consumes every waking moment of her life and impacts everything she says, does, thinks. This is the case even after she gets married and not surprisingly, her overwhelming desire to have a baby ends up straining her relationship with her husband as well as everyone else around her. Personality-wise, the way Lucy is portrayed for majority of the story – as a woman who, despite being in her 40s and having a prestigious, high-level managerial position at her company, was highly immature, selfish, hypocritical, and often acted like a jealous, defiant teenager when dealing with all issues outside of work – made her a very unlikable character. I actually found it very difficult to feel any bit of sympathy for Lucy, despite all the struggles she endures throughout the story.

From a story perspective, I felt like things dragged on too much, with the focus for 90% of the book being on Lucy's desperate attempts to become a mother. I got tired of reading about the same thing over and over again, chapter after chapter: Lucy attempting to become pregnant, her nearly daily spats with her husband Jonah over trivial matters that almost always stemmed from her unwavering desire to have a baby, etc. The inconsistency of the writing also bothered me – not so much sentence structure or grammatical stuff, but rather the way the author seemed to "over-explain" things in some sections (especially when it came to Lucy's thoughts and feelings) but then "under-explain" in other sections (usually when it pertained to things not directly related to Lucy's desire to have a baby). It almost felt as though most of the dialogue in the book was meant "justify" in some way Lucy's every word, thought, and action, whether positive or negative.

To me, this is a book that has limited reading scope in that it likely won't appeal to those who may not have the same concerns, beliefs, experiences, etc. as the characters in the story. I clearly was not the target audience for this book, as I am not married (despite being nearly the same age as Lucy was when the story opened) and do not have children. Not to mention, my belief system also conflicts with what I perceive to be the "message" that the author (whether intentionally or unintentionally) seemed to be trying to convey throughout the book: that the only way for a woman to truly be happy in life is to get married and have children. Of course, I have nothing against marriage or having children (in fact, I love kids and have a nephew whom I adore), but I also don't see anything wrong with still being single. But this is just me….perhaps others who read this book may have a different perspective – for me, this book definitely wasn't my cup of tea.

Received advance reader's copy from Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley.