tirsdag den 4. januar 2011

Cathryn Grant, The Demise of the Soccer Moms (2010)


This American suspense novel is the writer´s debut.

“After a moment of silence, a thud shook the walls of the living room and the hallway outside Amy´s bedroom. Her mother yelped. Amy rolled onto her back. The walls shivered again. There was a thick, damp sound like the pounding of her mother´s meat tenderizer on a piece of beef.”

When Amy Lewis was a little girl, her mother was raped in their own living room. She was too terrified to do anything, but for the rest of her life she remembers her father´s verdict: if her mother hadn´t invited a stranger in or ´dressed like a slut´, nothing would ever have happened to her.

Afterwards Amy´s mother stops caring about clothes, make-up, food – even her two daughters. So when Amy grews up, she decides to create a perfect life for her own girls. She becomes one of the group of devout soccer moms in their pleasant Sunnyvale suburb.

When Charlotte, a budding photographer and the mother of Meadow, enters the scene, things change very quickly, however. “She wore a gauze skirt paired with Doc Marten boots that made her look like a hybrid of Tinker Bell and a thug.”

The outrageous newcomer who doesn´t even wear a bra sticks out a mile, and the soccer moms Amy, Rachel, Jane and Kit are less than pleased with this inchworm in their paradise.

When it comes to plot, it is difficult to say if the story is mainly about crimes against women, or about the long-term consequences of these. No matter what, I rushed through the book in a few hours. As I had expected, the suburban environment was well drawn, and I was intrigued by the small group of female characters, especially Amy and Charlotte who appear to be opposites.

I bought the Kindle version myself.

Global Reading Challenge # 1, North America. 

12 kommentarer:

Elizabeth Spann Craig sagde ...

Oh, that cover! Ha! I might have even met a few women like the outrageous newcomer (school events but not soccer), so it sounds interesting to me.

Dorte H sagde ...

Elizabeth: it´s an excellent debut, and it would be really interesting to hear what another carpool mother thinks about it.

Anonym sagde ...

Dorte - What a fascinating premise for a novel! I'm so glad you enjoyed this one. I've been intrigued since I read about the title of it, and your review just makes me want to read it all the more. I'm going to have to add this one to the TBR...

Felicity Grace Terry sagde ...

Ooh this sounds good, very descriptive. And I love the cover, that heel piercing the fotball is a very powerful image.

Unknown sagde ...

It was bound to happen, the soccer mom just went too far. Loved your review. Sounds like a funny book.
CD

Anonym sagde ...

I just checked this out on Amazon and may even read it....if you key in "soccer mom" to Amazon you get loads of books with those words in the title (by other people) - I hadn't realised how popular this kind of "mom" must be!

Dorte H sagde ...

Margot: I enjoyed seeing how this new woman could threaten their existence, and I could imagine it might be even more interesting for American mothers.

Tracy: it´s a first-rate cover, and Cathryn writes really well.

Clarissa: I think there are funny sides to it, but it is not cosy in any way.

Maxine: I suppose ´soccer moms´ can be compared to the modern Danish concept ´mom´s taxi´ (service moms).

Kelly sagde ...

I've been looking forward to this review and it didn't disappoint!

Charlotte sounds like someone I would like! I'll have to check this out.

Thanks for the fun review.

Kelly sagde ...

Okay...the Kindle price was just too good to pass up. I got it!

(I can see that the ease of a Kindle can be a dangerous thing!)

Cathryn Grant sagde ...

Hi Dorte,

Thanks for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)

Belle Wong sagde ...

Love the premise of this novel, and enjoyed your review. I'm a fan of Cathryn's blog, and will be putting this on my list.

Dorte H sagde ...

Kelly: oh, I love ´selling´ good books :D

Cathryn: now I can laugh at my fear that it would be too noir for me. It was a real pleasure.

Belle: great! I have come to know several authors since I began blogging, but it has been so exciting to follow the process of Cathryn´s debut.