Grace O'Connell

This story was dark and it hit hard. I felt some real hurt from this book, and that only shows how good of a writer Grace O'Connell is.

Our lead, Veda, is taken hostage on a bus. It's scary, people are going to die, and Veda is just the random bystander who got stuck in the middle of the mess. She hasn't had the easiest of lives, and it seems like everyone around is is slowly figuring everything out (yet also crashing and burning just as hard as her at the same time). Everyone's relationships seem to be struggling or really bad for them, yet everyone goes on as if life is normal.

I'd be curious to see someone tear this book apart and explain the themes. I think Grace was trying to go somewhere with these issues, but it just felt all around dark. People's lives were crumbling, Veda takes a deep dive in a random direction near the end, and the ending is just as mind blowing. Was there a reason? Was this just fiction and meant to shock people? I want to know.

This book was presented to me as a thriller, but I feel like it's more of a character development study or contemporary story. The thrills don't last as long as the relationships and drama. It's also a very slow moving story, so if you love fast paced books like me then it might not hit as well.

My biggest con of this book was that it jumped back and forth between the timelines. I wanted to see how the entire scenario before the incident occurred and then jump into the scary situation Veda was presented with. The way the book was written, it did leave me clinging to the pages and wanting to know more, but it also frustrated me immensely.

Overall, this book is truly unique and I'm glad I had a chance to pick it up. I love reading books by Canadians even if they aren't my typical genres. I think this book will really hit with some people! It's truly moving.

Three out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.… (altro)

Oh my. There is a lot packed into this little book. I mean a lot. Two books, three books, worth of interactions and plots and conversations and reasons and fiction-thingies that make books books and not real life. We have a brother with anger issues. We have immigrant parents. We have random violence unrelated to the brother with anger issues. We have high school friends staying friends forever (which I guess happens. I still talk to, at best we'll say 0.75 of a person of my high school friends, but I suppose there are other people who stay close to those they knew as teenagers. Me: I prefer to remove all reminders of adolescence, including, but not limited to, people, places, and things). We have weddings. We have break-ups. We have stalker-ish, suicidal sisters with power-of-attorney forms. We have a suitcase of a book with the zipper popping open and staying closed only with the help of a huge roll of duct tape.

Maybe all of everything in Be Ready for the Lightning happened somewhere to someone, because it has that feeling of truth being stranger/more fantastical than fiction. At a micro-level, each of the bits works, but Be Ready for the Lightning often feels like too much of a good thing. A black hole collapsing in on itself. I feel weighed down after reading.

Be Ready for the Lightning by Grace O'Connell went on sale June 6, 2017.

I received a copy free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (altro)