One of the more unusual novels I’ve ever read, Erin Healy’s
Motherless is an intriguing, but not pleasant, read. This is a challenging story, but I read on
trying to make sense of this dysfunctional family and their story as narrated
by an almost-dead man. Filled with guilt
over the death of his wife sixteen years earlier, Garrett Becker drives his car
into an excavation site to die. He has
long agonized over an affair he had with chocolate shop entrepreneur Sara. He blames himself, and the affair, for his
wife’s death; it is supposed that she drowned in the ocean though a body was
never found. Garrett has great concern
for his almost-grown children, Marina and Dylan, and in his ghost-like state,
he follows them about. There is a thread
throughout that is eventually tied up in an unexpected twist in the
ending. This story is bizarre and
somewhat eerie. It is often difficult to
follow, as we jump about in different times and places from the chocolate store
to the chop shop to the construction site.
Although I appreciate the author’s talent to write a suspenseful
conclusion, I did not enjoy this novel.
I found the plot confusing and the characters shallow. Perhaps I should not have been surprised—after
all, the story was told by a half-dead man on the edge of eternity. I received
a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review
and the words here are my own.
