Sunday, May 26, 2013

Some Quiet Place by Kelsey Sutton

 
 
To be Published: July 2013
Publisher: Flux Books
Pages: 350
Copy: NetGalley
Summary: Goodreads

Elizabeth Caldwell doesn’t feel emotions . . . she sees them. Longing, Shame, and Courage materialize around her classmates. Fury and Resentment appear in her dysfunctional home. They’ve all given up on Elizabeth because she doesn’t succumb to their touch. All, that is, save one—Fear. He’s intrigued by her, as desperate to understand the accident that changed Elizabeth’s life as she is herself.
Elizabeth and Fear both sense that the key to her past is hidden in the dream paintings she hides in the family barn. But a shadowy menace has begun to stalk her, and try as she might, Elizabeth can barely avoid the brutality of her life long enough to uncover the truth about herself. When it matters most, will she be able to rely on Fear to save her?

Review by Pither
I am such a cover junkie. I was looking through NetGalley, sniffing around in case I missed something good, when I saw the cover of Kelsey Sutton’s “Some Quiet Place.” It’s so… creepy, but deliciously so, like hearing a good ghost story you just KNOW is going to keep you up at night, but you keep listening anyway.
To start with, I ADORED “Some Quiet Place.” Our relationship began happily enough: I couldn’t get enough, had to have more, just couldn’t stop those pages flipping. The characters are highly engrossing, and the story is as hidden to you as it is the main character, Elizabeth.

You know something is wrong as soon as you start the book; Elizabeth just doesn’t feel emotions. She knows she should be feeling them, pastes suitable expressions on her face when she can, but she’s an actress in her own life. However, she knows emotions exist because she can see them. Despair and Anger are frequent visitors to her home life, abusive and neglectful by turns, with a drunken father and distant mother. She sees Sorrow, Courage, Worry, even Elements such as Fog.

I just love the whole concept; Emotions wandering around, their touch eliciting what you’re feeling. Elizabeth sees Courage behind the shoulder of a brave classmate, Grief clinging to her mother, Despair to a sick classmate. They’ve all got their own distinct personalities, looks, and also feelings. I love Sutton’s tone, her almost lyrical language at some points. Sorrow, for example: “Sorrow looks at me while Joshua is distracted, those constant tears streaking down his white, white cheek. His black hair thrashes in the wind and his essence clashes against me. I see death, sobs, emptiness.” (p. 119)

The highlight Emotion of the book is Fear. All brooding and good-looking and bad-boy-delicious, he’s obsessed with Elizabeth as she’s the one person who doesn’t feel his touch. For such a negative emotion, you get really wrapped up with him! Sutton does a great job of characterization, never letting them descend to the level of cardboard cut-outs (with one exception, which I’ll rant about later). Fear is the bad boy, true, but he never skulks around a la Snidely Whiplash. There’s depth to him, and you just love peeling back the layers trying to work out what makes him tick.

The story is also involving, and I loved trying to unravel the mystery of it all. But therein lies my one—and it’s a major one—problem with the book. I can’t say too much without unloading major spoilers, but when you finally uncover the mystery and figure out what’s going on… It all changes. As said before, I adored this book, the potential of it, all those Emotions running around, but three-quarters the way in… Elizabeth changes, and to my mind, not for the better. She morphs into a bit of a cliché, losing all those layers that made her intriguing at the start of the book. I kept gaping at her, “I can’t believe you just said that!!”

So overall, a fantastic read, but one that got me frustrated before the end. It was so awesome up until that point, five stars, but with that shift… It got bumped down to a 3.5. I definitely recommend it though, especially to Curlypow with her love of bad boys :) I hope Sutton plans to write more with the Emotions; they’re just too good to leave in only one book!
 
 

1 comment:

  1. Honestly, I grabbed this one because of the cover too. I'm glad you liked it, though. Great review!

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