Book Review- Rebecca Hardiman's Good Eggs

Thank you to Atria Books for providing me with a copy of Rebecca Hardiman’s Novel, Good Eggs, in exchange for an honest review.

Eccentric eighty-three year old widow, Millie Gogarty, has just been arrested for shoplifting, and to make matters worse, her middle-aged son, Kevin, is called to retrieve her from the police station. Worried about his mom’s behavior, Kevin pretends to strike a deal with the police, which includes canceling Millie’s upcoming holiday, and having a young American woman named Silvia employed as a part-time carer.

Initially, Millie is livid at the arrangement, and vows to give Silvia a difficult time, however, Silvia’s charm and friendship quickly melts Millie’s tough exterior. The two women form a bond, and Millie even loans Silvia a large sum of money. The relationship turns sour, when Silvia leaves Ireland, and Millie can’t contact her. Soon, Millie realizes that Silvia may not be the friend that she imagined.

Kevin is dealing with his own troubles, including a marriage that’s on the rocks, and a troubled teenage daughter, Aideen. Aideen’s angry attitude and unpredictable behavior have pushed her parents to send her to a strict private school, where she boards on school nights. Aideen find solace in the other back sheep of the family, her grandmother, whom she helps solve the mystery of the missing Silvia.

Good Eggs explores what it truly means to be a good person, and how we can both seek and give forgiveness, even when tremendous transgressions have occurred. None of Hardiman’s characters are perfect, yet they are all very much human, and I’m certain that all readers can find themselves in one or more of the characters.

I was most drawn to Aideen, who at sixteen, is struggling to figure out her personal identity. She doesn’t feel like she fits in with her family or society, causing her to lash out and make some terrible judgements in error. Yet, despite her troubles, she has a good heart.

One of the more surprising plot twists involves Aideen unwittingly poisoning her headmaster. Another classmate and Aideen steal a bag of fish eyeballs from biology class and put a few in their headmaster’s breath mint jar, intending on a disgusting prank. However, the girls do not realize that the eyeballs have been preserved in formaldehyde, which sends the headmaster to the emergency room. Aideen doesn’t know the extent of her headmaster’s injuries, yet she immediately disregards any repercussions, and fesses up to the crime in efforts to help give information to help her headmaster’s recovery. The other girl stays silent.

Aideen is filled with these moments, mistakes made and regrets. She desperately wants to make the right decisions, but she is also conflicted over how to navigate social situations. I could definitely see aspects of my teenage-self in Aideen.

Good Eggs was an unexpected read filled with plot twists, delightful characters, and a big dose of heart. I fell in love with the Gogarty family. Good Eggs is Hardiman’s first novel and I look forward to her next!

Book Review- Emily Layden's All Girls

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a copy of Emily Layden’s novel, All Girls, in exchange for an honest review.

When a scandal from 1995 surfaces and threatens to damage the reputation of Atwater, a prestigious all-girls boarding school in Connecticut, the current students are left wondering who they should trust. All Girls is set during a single school year and each chapter focuses on a different student, high school girls with different dreams and personalities, all trying to navigate the complications of adolescence.

As the girls are being dropped off at Atwater in the fall, they encounter a series of yard signs alerting them to a rapist living on campus. In 1995, a student named Karen Mirro was raped by a teacher and subsequently expelled from Atwater based on an unrelated incident, with no repercussions for the rapist. Now in her late thirties, Mirro has brought a lawsuit against Atwater, and although none of the students firmly know which of their teachers is a rapist, the rumors run rampant and distrust is high.

The school year proceeds with its usual traditions and events, as the administration struggles to keep the lawsuit on the down-low, including none of the staff being removed from their positions. The student paper tries to publish an edition regarding sexual assault and they are barred. Just as the signs mysteriously appear, so do other reminders of the case, such as flyers and unusual artwork. Atwater is awash in the mysterious identity of both the rapist and the person calling attention to Mirro’s case. But even more, the girls all worry if their beloved school, which is steeped in their identity, would protect them if they were in Mirro’s shoes?

I was initially drawn to All Girls because the blurb likened it to one of my all-time favorite novels, Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep. I can see the reasons for the comparisons, but All Girls was especially timely due to recent revelations about my high school years.

I graduated from a prestigious arts high school in 1995 and during my time in school, I did not realize boundaries that were being crossed between teachers and students. Sure, I saw things that seemed borderline inappropriate, but like Layden’s characters, when you are a teen, sometimes the lines are very blurry. Since graduating, I have heard stories from close friends of very, very inappropriate behavior towards them from some of our male teachers. More than one story, more than one teacher, and certainly more than one female student being affected. It hurts to realize this was happening and that friends were hurting in silence.

All Girls highlights an issue that has been raised recently among my friends, that there has been a shift in the current generation. Mirro was of my generation, which now I realize, we didn’t feel that we had the ability to speak up. She files the lawsuit decades later, because now, during the “me too” movement, she feels like she has a voice. The current Atwater students may still have some uncertainties regarding boundaries and inappropriate behavior, yet they are also raised during a time when they know the power of their own voices. They know that it is vital to hold Atwater accountable for protecting its students.

Layden’s novel took me right back to my teen years, not that I attended a boarding school or grewup with social media, yet the teen emotions were similar. I enjoyed how she framed the novel with focusing on a different student for each chapter and how the book took us through a single school year. I liked having different voices tell their experiences of Atwater and Mirro.

I’m in my early 40’s, and I feel that hindsight gives me a different perspective then if I had read All Girls during my teen years. I have a stepdaughter who will soon turn fourteen, and I couldn’t help but see her in a few of the younger characters, particularly cringing with some of the cruelties that the girls inflict upon each other, hoping that she will make true friends and that her “bad decisions” are mild.

All Girls is poignant and beautifully written. I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading Layden’s future works.

Book Review: Kevin Wilson's Nothing to See Here

Thank you to HarperCollins Publishers for providing me with a copy of Kevin Wilson’s novel, Nothing to See Here, in exchange for an honest review.

Madison Roberts seems to have it all. She’s gorgeous, wealthy, and has a perfect family: an adorable son and a handsome husband who is on track to become the next Secretary of State. Her situation changes, when she must take on her step-children, whose mother has recently died. It would be difficult enough to have twin ten-year olds brought into her family, but the twins have a special ability: They spontaneously combust.

The fire doesn’t hurt the twins, but it terrifies everyone else. Madison and her husband are fearful of the twins, worried for their property, and most important, they can’t let this secret destroy their political ambitions.

Madison hatches a plan to contact Lillian, her friend from boarding school. Madison and Lillian were former roomies and unlikely friends. Madison was from a rich family and Lillian was a scholarship kid, but the girls bonded over a shared love of basketball. Lillian’s time at the boarding school came to an abrupt end, when Madison got caught with cocaine and Madison’s father paid-off Lillian’s family, to have Lillian take the fall. Lillian’s life continued on a downhill trajectory, including dropping out of college, working low-level jobs, and living in her mother’s attic.

Although her life was destroyed due to Madison’s actions, Lillian still cares for her. She still has a teenage crush on the charismatic Madison and Madison knows it. Madison uses this leverage to ask Lillian to move into her guest house and become a short-term governess to the twins, Bessie and Roland. Lillian has zero experience with children and doesn’t even like them very much, but she accepts the job, as it puts her in proximity to Madison and provides an escape from her dismal life.

Taking care of Bessie and Roland isn’t easy, but Lillian quickly realizes that she can help these children. It changes not only the way she views herself, but also how she sees Madison.

I loved Nothing to See Here. It’s a quirky, quick read. The best parts were Lillian with the twins. The twins are initially distrustful of everyone, with good reason as they have just experienced a huge trauma ( no spoilers!), but Lillian manages to get them to drop their defenses. Lillian is not someone who is a natural choice to care for children. She has no training and can barely take care of herself, but in a delightful turn, taking care of the twins ultimately helps Lillian the most. It gives her purpose and direction. It pulls her out of her funk.

Lillian feels bonded to the twins, because she is similar to them. The twins are not asked how they feel and are kept as a secret obligation, rather than members of their own family. When Lillian’s mother accepted the bribe from Madison’s father, she didn’t consider how it would affect her daughter. Lillian and the twins have both experienced deep betrayal by their blood relatives.

Nothing to See Here is delightful, unexpected, and full of heart. I highly recommend it.