I enjoyed this, I liked how the story was told. 

 

Energy: Bewildered. Feisty. Insistent.  

Scene: 🇺🇸 The Sycamores, a roadside motel turned low-rent apartments in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Perspective: We follow two main characters. One is a superintendent trying to get on their feet after an unexpected break-up. The other is going through their recently deceased spouse’s apartment/painting studio trying to get a sense of what happened. 

 

🐩 Tail Wags: The characters. Dramedy elements. The Sycamores. Story-telling style. 

 

🤔 Random Thoughts:

You can try to solve the mysteries or just tag along for the ride since it’s more on the contemporary fiction side. If you like the characters or at least find them interesting, there's enough substance to keep it interesting. 

 

I like that it didn’t drag on. Things are constantly happening, some impactful and others less of a big deal. The dual character perspectives also keep things interesting. 

 

It’s got plot, but also character driven. There are some comedic type situations, alongside darker uneasy ones. It flowed well without feeling too quirky while also not taking itself too seriously.

 

Some of the suspense relied on withholding from the reader, either because we are in the other characters perspective or a character reacts but doesn’t share with us what they’re reacting to. This usually bugs me but bc it was used sporadically I was okay with it. Sometimes we know a little more than the characters or a little bit less. 

 

Although…”I let out the breath I’d been holding” appears a few times lol. It’s forgiven. 

 

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🤓 Reader Role: Observer. Immersed in the apartment complex, getting to know the tenants, tagging along on their adventures. 

🗺️ World-Building: Easy to imagine the settings, characters, and their dynamics. Like watching a mini-series in my mind. 

🔥 Fuel:  Why did Anna’s husband die by suicide (or did he)? Why did someone anonymously tell his wife to get out? The rest of the fuel would be a spoiler. It’s not all sleuthing around Anna’s husband. Cass, the superintendent, has some incidents and serious life drama to navigate, and there are vibes around the other tenants that lead to ever increasing mysteries.  

📖 Cred: Plausible, maybe a sprinkling of suspended disbelief.

 

 

Content Heads-Up: Loss of a spouse. Cancer (brief recall). Depression. Homophobia (character comments). Domestic abuse (father/husband). Misogyny. Blood. Death. Murder. Suicide. Extortion. Sexual assault. Drugging. Alcohol use (self-medicating, intoxication). Financial insecurity, lay-offs. Poverty, child neglect/hardships. Infidelity. Break-up. Miscarriage (brief recalls). Disposal of corpse. Kidnapping. Violence (attack, threats, gun). 

 

Rep: Diverse body sizes. Latina, Latino, and ambiguously described Americans. Cisgender. Heterosexual.

 

📚 Format: Library Audio