Kimberly McCreight's ARC review and a recap of Viola Davis' memoir, Finding Me.

Readers of this blog know I set out on a path during February to read African American voices. It made for heavy reading but left a lasting impression and gave me some real insights to my own shortcomings in recognizing inherent bias and struggles for many Americans. You can read more on those amazing books (symbolic high class literary fiction and non fiction choices!) here.

While on that journey, I found Finding Me, Viola Davis' stellar memoir, which was book six in my 2024 book challenge. She's from Rhode Island, like me, so I have long been interested in her life and career. I know the community she grew up in and its notoriety for being quite impoverished. Her story paints that picture and then some. It was shocking and amazing to read about her steadfast hope, her reliance on her family, and her love for them despite the deep flaws and shortcomings. In this way, we see a most amazing person unfold, the incredible strength and resilience burning within her. We see that she has suffered unimaginable trauma and adversity, yet still clawed out of it and became a healthy adult with so much to give the world.

And all that says nothing about her incredible gift as an actress. This was written and released (April 26, 2022) before The Woman King (an absolutely incredible movie where Davis shows amazing reach and prowess as an actor). She truly is so underrated and I urge you all to watch the film. It seems like Ms. Davis is just getting better and better with age, cast in incredible roles and giving breathtaking performances.

Her story is similar and written in a very colloquial, conversational style. I felt like we were in her living room sharing coffee and snacks just discussing life like two friends. She is teaching me, she is guiding me, and she is inspiring me in sharing her innermost details and how she has been shaped into who she is today. What a great find in my library that day, and a good story to share.

After the heaviness of the month and procrastinating before embarking on Jesmyn Ward's gut wrenching, powerful novel Let Us Descend, I scrolled around NetGalley for an ARC, seeking a regular thriller. Nothing has been quite so good on that site since I stumbled upon Pamela Fagan Hutchins' Delaney Pace Series (reviews for all three books here on this blog!), but still I scan around looking for a hit. This is a site where you literally judge books by their covers, if they are even final yet, and use a short snippet and your instincts to determine if this is a book up your alley.

But then I found Kimberly McCreight's upcoming thriller Like Mother, Like Daughter (due out July 9, 2024). I immediately liked this book. I found the characters incredibly relatable especially as McCreight sets the stage of the drama between mother and daughter as the younger is desperately embarking on her own life. This is a story about motherhood as much as it is about a gripping disappearance and all we will do for our kids to stay on the right path, to succeed and achieve their best life. And no matter what they say or do to hurt us, we are still as mothers right there in their corner. Always. Unfailingly. No. Matter. What. And for Kat who is a badass lawyer with many skills and many contacts to execute those skills, she's even more of a hero to me. Think the female version of Liam Neeson's character in Taken but not so lethal. Working mom, dedicated mom, Mom who works. Nothing detracts for her love and dedication to her daughter even when her husband is a total pinhead.

This novel builds great intrigue and suspense. Our main character, Kat, is truly awesome. Aidan doesn't and never did deserve her. Cleo is interesting and it was awesome to see her figure out her own conclusions about those around her, as so many of us stubborn daughters need to do. Here, especially, I could relate. The mother-daughter dynamic was absolutely spot on. Who can't relate, whether they were a rebellious daughter themselves, or a mother now dealing with the viciousness of teen hood and early college years of yearning independence? Excellent character development and stage setting here.

Where this novel lost me, though, and generated the two and half to three stars rather than four, is the complete wildness of a college student in New York City from a fairly stable home. It just didn't make sense to me that Cleo would be involved in such risky behavior - and this after her mother is missing - and confidently ignoring police orders. This is especially so given what Kat does for a living and her experience in the underbelly of society. She would create certain ideals for Cleo and bring her up in a certain way that would create a more risk adverse default inside her. For me, being lost and transfixed in the novel is a must. If you have my attention and I'm in the world you have created, don't push me out of it with silly unrealistic details or actions, especially when the character is so relatable that the reader feels they know exactly what the next action would be. All is lost at that point. I also found there to be too many breadcrumbs for the twist to be the shock and awe that it should have been. For me, it became increasingly obvious. I'm a reader who pays attention, however, and so maybe other readers who quickly read through page turners missing the hints along the way will react as the author intended. I wish I had missed them, honestly, because I think it would have made for a really enjoyable WOW moment. Still, it is worth the read. Consider picking up this title in July!

Happy Reading!