There's finally a chill in the air this week, and it's left me craving a book that feels like fall. What exactly makes a book feel like fall, you may ask? And you know, it forced me to think a bit. While I always look for a book with a bit of spooky in it this time of year, what I really crave is atmosphere. Not cozy, necessarily, but a book that feels steeped in the season. Cool nights, changing leaves, shorter days. Maybe a little fog. Maybe something strange lurking just beyond it. Something that just gives autumn.
When I saw the cover of Nowhere by Allison Gunn, I felt like I might be onto something. When I read the tease on the jacket, comparing the novel to Mare of Easttown and The Outsider, I knew I'd found the book I was looking for.
Being the police chief of a small Virginia town is an all-consuming kind of job. And Rachel Kennan is more than willing to lose herself in it.
How could she not be? Focusing on life outside of work would mean facing all the things she's not willing, or maybe even able, to deal with. The loss of her young son in a car accident. Her failing marriage to Finn, the man who was driving during the crash. The two girls at home looking to their struggling parents for comfort they can't provide. And the growing realization that if she'd been honest with herself about being attracted to women years ago, her life might have taken a very different path.
But lately, work isn't providing much of an escape.
A horrific crime has rocked the small community, calling into question the peace and tranquility a place like this takes for granted. The deeply religious townspeople have almost no one else to turn to but their police chief, even if Rachel's “lifestyle” doesn't necessarily align with their beliefs.
As Rachel starts hunting down leads, what she finds only gets more disturbing. Strange voices seem to be beckoning children into the forest. The townspeople become increasingly reluctant to talk. And whatever is happening here seems to run much deeper than a single crime.
Rachel has spent years burying the things she doesn't want to face. Now, in a town that seems determined to keep its own secrets buried, that's becoming harder and harder to do.
Nowhere sees Allison Gunn capture exactly the fall vibes I was looking for. There's a small town on the edge of a mysterious forest. Allusions to Appalachian folklore add to the creepy factor. And there's a sense of cool unease running through every page.
This is fall reading at its best.
And while I was completely enthralled by the atmosphere and mystery of this story, I was less so by the characters. Sure, their situations are tragic and complex. But it was hard to latch onto any of them. Each of them is, in some way, the maker of their own misery. I could understand why they made the choices they did without necessarily liking them for it.
Characters aside, Gunn's novel is ultimately one about being haunted. Supernaturally, yes, but also by the lives these people have lived and the choices they've made. By the past. By grief. By regret. By prejudice. By shame. Everyone in Nowhere seems to be carrying something with them, and the things lurking in the forest aren't necessarily the scariest things they have to face.
It all culminates in an open-ended conclusion that left me questioning what actually happened, while still understanding the inevitability of where these characters ended up. There are things Gunn leaves unanswered, and I'm still not entirely sure what I think happened in those final pages.
Strangely, I don't think that bothered me. For a story so steeped in secrets, grief, and things its characters can't quite explain, I'm not sure a clean answer would have felt right anyway. If anything, I was left feeling just as haunted by what I'd read as the characters who experienced it.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 86)
The plot has to be really good if I cannot connect with the characters. Maybe that was the case for you.
ReplyDeleteWow, I don't like a book to end open ended but when you put it like that, I get it. This sounds like a lot was happening and these characters sound interesting to say the least.
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