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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

How to be a Good Wife by Emma Chapman


How To Be a Good Wife
'Needs more salt,' she says. Then she turns around, picks up her gin and tonic from the sideboard, and leaves the room.

When she is gone, I lift the lid of the pan. Picking up the large salt container, I hold it over the stew, watching the smooth white trail disappear. I pour until the container is empty.

Marta Bjornstad decides to stop taking her meds. When her husband asks her repeatedly if she took her meds, she lies and says yes. When he pops a pill into her mouth, prompts her to swallow and then open her mouth, she pretends to swallow the pill, hides it in a corner of her mouth and opens her supposedly empty mouth. She doesn't know why she's doing this. But she's tired of eating the pills. Sadly for her, stopping the pills begins to have an adverse effect on her - she starts getting visions of a girl she doesn't recognize. Initially, she panics, but soon she starts looking forward to the visions. She feels that the girl is trying to tell her something. She doesn't tell her husband though. When her son and his fiancee come to visit, she feels entirely beside herself. She is rude to her son's fiancee, and behaves weirdly. Soon things begin to get stranger - she sees things that she feels she knows but can't quite place properly. Suddenly, she feels that she cannot trust anyone - not even her husband.

If you read the blurb of How to be a Good Wife, you will see two familiar titles scream at you - Before I go to Sleep and Room - both books I barely enjoyed. I thought Room was well-written but filled with very implausible situations. Before I go to Sleep was just melodramatic and silly to me. So, why then did I chose to read How to be a Good Wife? I don't know.

This book is very well-written. Emma Chapman is definitely a promising author and I would be interested in seeing more of her works. There is a very cold quality to the prose. This is a wintry book - you can feel the lack of emotion and feeling flying out of the pages. The dialogue is detached. Marta's visions feel very real, very around the reader and it is not hard to see what she sees or think like her. Contrast that with the last few pages of the book, when a lot of positive feelings explode out. Suddenly there is some color, happiness and promise ahead.

Marta also turns out to be a very unreliable narrator. At one point, she dumps a whole container of salt into a stew and waits to hear what her guests think of her dish. They all loved her food though, and complimented her, but she thinks they are lying to please her. At every point, you never know who to trust - even at the end, you can see how cleverly the tables are positioned. From Marta's perspective, she is saying the truth, but as an outsider, it isn't hard to see a woman weaving mad fantastic tales.

The plot of How to be a Good Wife is very similar to Before I go to Sleep and Room. Unfortunately, this book suffers from the same flaws that beset those books as well. The author focuses more on trying to set the facts out than on making them feel real. Marta's actions seem more dictated on revealing the truth of what happened than on solving some more mysterious questions, such as what happened to her parents. I felt frustrated that she fell for the traps that conveniently marked her an insane woman. Rather than letting the story play for itself, I felt that the author was directing the story towards a certain planned ending, even if the means to the end didn't quite seem sensible. Also, by comparing this book to the other two books, the "blurb-writers" ruined this book by exposing the main spoiler.

At the end of it, I liked the atmosphere of the book, the writing and the ending. I didn't enjoy the plot (there are too many books out there running along the same lines, not to mention, real-life stories as well) or the progression from the beginning to the end. I think, personally, I am done with abduction stories. The real-life stories are harrowing enough and it's even more disappointing when none of the books seem to get it "right".


 I received this book for free for review from the publisher.

Comments

bermudaonion(Kathy) said…
It's too bad the plot didn't feel real or original to you.
Ti Reed said…
I am going to be reading this one soon but I never did read Before I Go To Sleep so maybe to me, the story will be somewhat new in feel.
I loved both BIGTS and Room so this is one for me. :-) I read BIGTS twice, even, so I think I can handle more of the same. Thanks for pointing me to this book.
Athira / Aths said…
I was disappointed by that. There are some different elements, and the writing was very good though.
Athira / Aths said…
This one is so much better than Before I go to Sleep and Room. I am sure I would have enjoyed this one more if I hadn't read either of those two. I hope you will like it - it is a pretty good book considering.
Athira / Aths said…
Woot! I hope you really like it then. The writing in this book is so much better.
Rita_h said…
I didn't enjoy Before to Sleep at all and Room was just okay to me, so even though you say this one is better, I think I will pass. I am not that impressed by the blurb or the review. Thanks for your honesty!
I really enjoyed this one. These sorts of books aren't my "usual genre"..whatever that is ;) But lately I've been digging all the creepy little books out there. This one was better than most, at least in my opinion.
Lisa Sheppard said…
Hmmm, this one remains a question for me, having read differing reviews. I think it's one that I might pick up - but only if I'm not out much and am willing to give it up if it's not working for me.
Sam said…
Good fun and well written. Why is she being forced to take pills? No one knows