Book is available to request till the 27th of march 2020
It has been forever since a book that I really ‘enjoyed’ matched with the need to write the review immediately as well as to finish it at such a time that I could actually sit down and write.
As I moved on to the author’s note at the end of the book, the story continued to reverberate within me. Once I finished reading about where the author got the inspiration from, my understanding of the book felt like it had reached another secret level. It is not an easy book to read, and I actually did not read the blurb before going in, so I did not see the death coming. The story begins innocuously enough, the way the best ones do. We have a family at odds in the general way most families are, and they are planning a skiing trip on a long weekend. There are many characters involved in this, one is the main family- the Millers. The eldest daughter is set to get married in a couple of months and is not accompanying them but Finn’s best friend and the mother Ann’s best friend from two doors down and their trio is coming too as well as another sister and her boyfriend. Suffice to say, things suddenly change tragically as the title indicates, in an Instant. This ‘instant’ puts a sequence of events in motion that has everyone making decisions in the spur of the moment, and it belies what the world at large or even they thought of themselves.
There are quotes that effectively summarize the narrative than my review ever could
“..but even she knows the words are wrong. More was revealed in that single tragic night than most people reveal in a lifetime”
” We do not control our reactions only our actions”
On a more hopeful note “..that, sometimes humans surprise you”
Taken out of context, these may seem like more popular adages but to watch this extended family with their tenuous connections forged by the fire of their actions and reactions had my mind whirring. See, this conversation is one which I have had before when thinking back on any particularly odd situation, trying to analyze if I behaved a) appropriately. B) true to how I thought I would/should(this not the same as being appropriate, more related to what I believe in). I have never completely satisfied myself on all counts of being ‘good’ and ‘just’ in the purest of senses at crucial moments. That is the reason I found this entire narrative entirely fascinating. I do not rave like this often, but the writing was good enough to make you feel for all the people within its pages. None of them is ideal, and their behaviour sets them apart as individuals. It is a book about people and their thoughts and what makes them, them. I highly recommend this to anyone who finds any of the parts of my review even remotely appealing.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, but this review is entirely based on my reading experience and my prior thoughts on the questions being handled in the book.
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