ARC REVIEW: LITTLE LOVELY THINGS

A mother’s chance decision leads to a twist of fate that is every parent’s worst nightmare.

Claire Rawlings, mother of two and medical resident, will not let the troubling signs of an allergic reaction prevent her from making it in for rounds. But when Claire’s symptoms overpower her while she’s driving into work, her two children in tow, she must pull over. Moments later she wakes up on the floor of a gas station bathroom-her car, and her precious girls have vanished.

The police have no leads and the weight of guilt presses down on Claire as each hour passes with no trace of her girls. All she has to hold on to are her strained marriage, a potentially unreliable witness who emerges days later, and the desperate but unquenchable belief that her daughters are out there somewhere.

Little Lovely Things is the story of a family shattered by an unthinkable tragedy. Played out in multiple narrative voices, the novel explores how the lives of those affected fatefully intersect, and highlights the potential catastrophe of the small decisions we make every day.

This was not an easy read…

Claire, a medical student and a mother of two, gets afflicted with an allergic reaction to a double dosage of vaccine while driving her two daughters, and it’s so bad that she has to pull into the nearest gas-station to go to the bathroom, on the verge of vomiting and passing out, leaving her two daughters sleeping in the car. That’s the last she sees of them because the couple of Moira and Eamon, Irish travelers come across the kids, and Eamon impulsively decides to abduct the girls.

This was such an intricately weaved tale, with complex characters. It was fascinating to read the point of view of the couple who abducted the kids too. Moira, in particular, was a destructive character with multiple layers. Then there was Jay White, a Native American with a supernatural sense of insight. There preternatural themes playing throughout the book, with dreams playing a major role. But it was the interplay of guilt and blame between Claire and Glen that really stuck with me. None of the characters were perfect, Claire the least. In fact, I was frustrated with Claire more than any other characters. But I also felt so much compassion for her!

The writing was sublime and subtly descriptive, if at times too unorthodox, which might not be for everyone, because it did disrupt the flow of my reading at times. But Maureen Joyce Connolly is definitely a debut author to look out for.