Jessie Sloan is exhausted. She was by the side of her dying mother's side day and night until the end. Trying to move her life forward after losing her mother is a task that seems impossible to complete. She tries registering for college but was told that her social security number was tied to a dead girl. She tries tracking down her birth certificate but is told that it doesn't exist. She moves into her own place but keeps hearing voices that lead her to believe that her landlord may be spying on her. But most of all, she just can't sleep. Jessie struggles with trying to figure out the secrets that her mother left behind while trying to figure out a way to keep moving forward. No matter what she does, no matter how hard she tries, her body will not give her the rest that she desperately needs. Jessie knows that time is running out. She has done her research and she knows that eleven days is as long as a human body can go without sleep. Will she be able to find the answers she needs in order to put her mind at ease and let her body sleep?
I was really surprised by the twists and turns that Mary Kubica throws at her readers. I really felt compassionate towards Jessie. She seemed so lost after her mother's death and her bone-weary exhaustion was something that I could relate to. The book flashes back between Jessie and her mother in 1996. There are really two stories about grief here, Jessie in her grief, and Eden with her own kind of grief - her inability to conceive a child, and what damage that does to her marriage. But the reader knows that she has a daughter, but how? If she is unable to conceive a child. I was truly surprised by the end of this book. I thought that I had it all figured out and I thought that I was *so* smart for figuring it out rather early. I could not have been more wrong and I LOVE it when that happens. -- CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS
Bottom Line - I love, love, love an author who can blindside me with the big reveal. Mary Kubica did just that with When the Lights Go Out. Be sure to check it out and let me know what your thoughts are about the big reveal. Were you as shocked as I was?
Details:
- When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica
- On Instagram
- Pages: 384
- Publisher: ParkRow Books
- Publication Date: 9/4/18
- Buy it Here!
Ok, I'm I the only person that doesn't dream in mundane detail?! It's a cheap insulting literary trick to say "it was all a dream" and disrespectful to the reader. We don't go to our nine to fives, get coffee and fill out rental applications in dreams. It's lazy writing.
Not clever. Give up the gimmicks please!
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