Tag: book-review

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Missing Sister Review

““You came alone,” Thalia said, right behind me. Close. So close she could have opened an artery in my throat or in my thigh before I got a scream out.” (186)

Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson has an intriguing cover so, kudos to the person who put that together. Say what you will, we do judge books by their covers. That’s what catches our eye first esp. if the book is written by an author we haven’t read. I freely admit I’ll judge a book if it looks like it falls into my area of interest. And Jackson’s book did that for two reasons: one, I have sisters and two, I enjoy a missing-person mystery.

I have to admit for a while I thought maybe Jackson’s Penny character had a split personality. Perhaps she was the one who killed the guy in the alley; she knew him and she hated him so for me it was reasonable to think Penny was an unreliable narrator. But how could she have killed this guy when she was on the job with her trainer? Some things weren’t adding up for what I thought Jackson was doing. The more I read the more I realized Thalia was real. Not some knockoff of Penny herself, so I let that go. I’m glad I was wrong with my thinking that I had figured it out because if it was that obvious to me that Penny was the actual killer, the story would have been, meh. The biggest reason for me thinking Penny was the culprit is during the exchange between Penny and Thalia in the alley:

“I asked anyway. “What is it about, then?

“Sisters,” she said.” (16)

Ok, for this to be believable that Thalia actually existed, I would’ve had to hear Thalia say, ‘My sister.’ Not some generic, all encompassing sisters. Who? The Pointer Sisters? Sister Sledge? A group of nuns? The reason I say this is because later Thalia admits she doesn’t know Penny’s sister; has no clue about Penny’s family, so why use the single word sisters? Did Thalia believe Penny could read her mind? The many ways the whole scene could be interpreted is what made my mind scream UNRELIABLE NARRATOR!

I did find Thalia Gray a meaty character. A dangerous femme fatale with a tragic backstory that drives her actions. It is her sister that’s missing, and Thalia is determined to find her or find the man responsible for her going missing. It’s only by chance that the same people have something to do with Penny’s sister overdosing in a nightclub’s bathroom. But the intrigue Jackson has created for Thalia makes me wonder how different this story may have been if it was told from Thalia’s point of view, and Penny could have been an annoying rookie cop.

Speaking of annoying, Penny’s brother Gand was exhausting. Until. For the most part, what readers learned of Gand was he was a playboy, a vegetarian and a yoga guru always preaching peace. Jackson saves Gand’s character through Thalia. “…Your brother is the angriest man I’ve ever met.” (212) Which made me (the reader) go, whaaat; with arched brows. She follows up by telling Penny that, ‘no one who has inner peace needs that much yoga.’ Well, okay then. What about Gand don’t we know? What about Gand does Penny not know? I know now, but I’m not going to tell it here. You’ll have to read it yourself.

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Connective tissue

A couple of months back I said I was using The Marshall Plan to plot and finish my second novel. My intentions were spot-on: working the outline, plotting out my second and third surprise, you get the idea. I believed I was ready for NaNoWriMo even if it spilled into December a little. Hell, taking the time to work an outline forced me to learn more about my antagonist Floyd Holt. So there is that…

But Floyd’s not who I want to discuss in this post. I want to explore a snag I ran into when the actual writing began. I’ve come to know it as connective tissue. Much like the tendons and ligaments holding muscle to bone and bone to bone and whatever else straps our bodies together. It’s the grey area that doesn’t get much attention unless it’s done badly. I equate it to the linkage between two train cars. We know it’s there, but don’t think much about it until we realize it’s broken.

While moving from the end of one chapter to the beginning of the next there’s a shady area between the two. The shade is especially dark if the following chapter deals with a different character. Imagin in a play when the curtain rises, the actors aren’t frozen in time. They’re milling around doing stuff—insignificant stuff, but doing it just the same. What the audience gets out of it may prove benign, but at least they get something. They get the character is alive and going on with his/her day-to-day. Actions happen. Thoughts happen. The beginning of his/her chapter or scene picks up somewhere during those happenings, moving the reader smoothly into that character’s life.

This connective tissue consumed many hours of NaNoWriMo for me. Having to shift gears from fifth to first from one character’s part to the next is where the real work happens. While I didn’t finish my novel in November or December, I did complete eight chapter that propelled me to the beginning of the end section. Basically two-thirds of the novel is complete. Would I have gotten that far without The Marshall Plan? Maybe. Maybe not.

Until next time, keep tapping away at those keys and be mindful of the connective tissue.