Read as part of CBR15bingo: picture this. The main character in this book is a psychic who can picture things in her mind by touching certain objects or coming into contact with people or places.
I’m not generally predisposed to fiction based on psychics. At least, I don’t think I am. I don’t seek those books out. And yet, I’ve read and enjoyed three of them within the last year: Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen, Play the Fool by Lina Chern and now this one.
I truly did not know where this book was going to go or what the main character was going to do this whole time. The writing isn’t abstract but it has almost a dreamlike quality, as if the MC is trying to suss out what is happening the whole time while everything is a haze. That’s not the kind of thing I would normally like but it works here. It’s a quality mystery with some real suspense.
Also, this book functions as a commentary on the Missing White Girl fascination our country has. I’ve always avoided coverage around Jon-Benet Ramsey’s disappearance because I find people’s fixation on the beauty queen angle to be gross. But this feels like an examination of a similar sort of case (and Ramsey gets a name drop courtesy of the resident conspiracy theorist radio host). And Julia Heaberlin does a great job not making it feel gross or exploitative, but focusing on what was lost and the strange people involved.
The ending disappointed as it inevitably would but the journey to get there was something else and I enjoyed it. I’ll have to pick up more by this author.
