Casting Shadows Everywhere by L T Vargus and Tim McBain / The Postmistress by Sarah Blake / Beloved by Toni Morrison

Casting Shadows Everywhere by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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I think I first found L T Vargus and Tim McBain on Twitter - a great resource for discovering indie authors! This novel of theirs, Casting Shadows Everywhere, was a free gift for signing up to their email newsletter and I am glad I did as I have already been able to take advantage of a reduced price offer for their Awake in the Dark trilogy boxed set.

Casting Shadows Everywhere follows a few months in the life of Jake, a shy American teenager, as he blossoms into confidence but seriously oversteps the good/bad line. Essentially it is a coming of age tale, but told from an interesting perspective. We learn everything from Jake's point of view, narrated in the first person, and so get to understand why he is drawn so far into his cousin, Nick's shady life and also how difficult the transition is. Jake is not just another good kid gone bad for no reason.

I liked the strong characters that lead this story. It is easy to believe the world they inhabit and understand the power struggles of young men trying to find their place in a social hierarchy that is based more on brute strength than intellectual ability. The female characters are nicely drawn too. Beth is fun and witty and I enjoyed the dialogue between her and Jake.

Vargus and McBain build the tension throughout the first two-thirds of the story. I wasn't sure how far either Nick or Jake would go and the unveiling of later horror is shocking. However I did not like the plot device that twists the tale! I won't explain it here as the spoiler would, well, spoil it for future readers, but REALLY?! (If you read the story, you'll know what I mean when you get there!)


The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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The Postmistress by Sarah Blake draws together the lives of three American women during the first years of the Second World War, before America had actually joined the fighting. Iris is the eponymous Postmistress - although, as she frequently insists, that title does not exist and she is the Postmaster - in a small town called Franklin on Cape Cod. A single woman and an incomer, she observes the townspeople while maintaining her professional distance. Emma is also not of Franklin. She arrives at the beginning of this story having married the local doctor. Finally, the third of the trio is initially a voice heard through the airwaves as Frankie is a journalist in London, reporting on the nightly bombings of the Blitz and the efforts of Londoners to continue living during the bombardment.

Blake sets up her novel well and I appreciated many individual scenes which are insightful and dramatically described. I thought her portrayals of London were particularly atmospheric. I could also easily believe in the characters she has created, both female and male. My problem with the book is that I didn't feel it really went anywhere. The dilemma announced in the synopsis is repeatedly touted, but then effectively becomes redundant and I think, by trying to keep focus on too many individuals and huge themes, Blake didn't do any of them complete justice. I did enjoy her writing style but would have preferred a stronger sense of direction.


Beloved by Toni Morrison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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A recent email from Waterstones announced the release of Toni Morrison's new novel, God Help The Child. In a tenuous coincidence I had swapped for her fifth book, Beloved, on the exchange shelves at Chapter 12 not long before. This is my first Toni Morrison read but I am practically certain that it won't be my last! Beloved is an emotionally difficult book to read and to say I 'enjoyed' it feels wrong due to the subject matter, but it is wonderfully written, imaginative and engrossing.

Sethe is an astounding character. Her drive to do the very best she could for her children, even though that best was murder, is a shockingly powerful thing to try and contemplate. I was glad that the edition I read had a foreword by Morrison in which she explains that, not only is Beloved inspired by truth, but also some of the realities of family for slave women. "a history in which ... birthing children was required, but 'having' them, being responsible for them ... was as out of the question as freedom." I read that statement over and over having not really considered its implications before.

Morrison's interweaving of the spirit and material worlds is beautifully done so that the existence of a ghost in the house becomes perfectly possible. The draining of joy and happiness from the house as the spirit grows and the gradual withdrawal of friends and neighbours is moving. I particularly felt for Denver, Sethe's daughter, isolated and lonely and clinging to stories of her birth as the only way to confirm her identity.

I cannot describe and consider all the themes Morrison explores without writing a review that could be as long as the book itself! I will say that I think everyone should read Beloved. There are inspirationally strong women - Sethe, Baby Suggs, Lady Jones - and such a graphic detailing of the horror that ensues when one group of people decide they are so superior to another.


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