I finished reading this book last week and had to spend a few days just letting it sink in. Now, in a new place nearly three-thousand miles from my own home, I’m going to attempt to write a review that will do this story justice.
The bare bones: two women meet and build a life together including love, warmth, and friendship before it all falls apart. However, there is so much more and no part, crevice, or character is simple. This isn’t a romance novel, no. It’s also not the kind of story that follows any sort of pre-set pattern or trope. This is literature. And it will break you open and take and take until you feel emotionally gutted from (finally) exposing yourself to something real- something truthful. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream or be held. Instead I just stared off, trying to process what I could say after reading so many sides of myself.
The story starts a short time after the death of Claire Bernard’s aunt, leaving Claire to care for her son, Simon, alone. We are immediately introduced to Liv, a young woman who is renovating Claire’s house. The two form a complicated bond and eventually two more characters, Bailey and Drake are filtered in. Each character is perfectly, imperfectly rounded, even Simon who is only 3 (until he’s 4) is so well written and real. This is probably one of my favorite depictions of a young child in any book, let alone lesbian fiction. He also served a literary purpose, being that he is Claire’s child, and therefore Liv would be committing herself to a family if they formed a relationship. No easy decision to make and certainly a complicated one, but one that she finds very rewarding. The complications in general are relatable. I loved the imperfections, the mistakes of these character, and the difficulties of their situations.
To return back to the plot- Claire needs to finish her aunt’s field guide on mushrooms, Liv continues to build (literally), Bailey bakes with aspirations of owning her own bakery, Drake teaches as a college professor, and Simon enjoys his existence with those around him. I really don’t want to give anything away on this one, so I won’t expand much further. This isn’t a plot-driven novel, it’s more of an exploration into the characters featured and all of the different layers each hold. I can’t emphasize enough how real everyone is. Countless chapters left me simply stunned.
This might be my favorite climax that I’ve ever read in a book. It’s so beautiful. The entire story builds to this moment where everyone has achieved their happiness and then so quickly it falls apart. I won’t give away any spoilers so I’ll avoid going further into the ending, but I will say that the epilogue was perfectly executed. It gave back a little of what this book took, just enough. Whether it was intentional or not, it made me feel hopeful, incredibly sad, but also just a little hopeful.
If beauty, tragedy, and truth are qualities you look for in your literature, then I urge you to pick this book up. There’s also vivid imagery relating to food that will leave you with an insatiable hunger.
Find A Field Guid to Deception here: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Deception-Jill-Malone
Follow Jill Malone on Twitter: @jill_malone or check out her blog: https://jillmalone.com/