#1 - The Good House, by Tananarive Due

[technocracygirl.livejournal.com]

The blurbs on the back of this copy are mostly from horror authors, and this definitely fits the horror tropes much more than sf/f ones, hence the classification.

This is the book that reminded me that I don't particularly *like* horror. I get too swept up in the emotions of a piece, and, even as fast as I read, I can't read fast enough to get through the horror and out the other side in one sitting. Which leaves me asking my husband if he wouldn't mind leaving the bedroom door open just a bit, because I don't want to go to sleep in a completely dark room.

Interestingly, though, we don't get to the horror-story tropes until a good long way into the book, maybe a third or more of the way in. There is horror early on, but it's a "mundane" horror.

The protagonist, Angela, is definitely a woman who is trying to have it all (or at least all of it that she wants) and isn't really succeeding. Her son thinks she's a harridan, her husband isn't the best of husbands, and she has a really hard time connecting to people well enough to have friends that she can consider real friends. She's very real, and oh, I identified with her.

The flashbacks and flashforwards work very well. It's nicely-constructed. I think that people who read a lot of horror might find it...not derivative, but I could see that much of it followed certain tropes. That said, just because you follow a well-trod storyline doesn't mean that you can't do it well, which I think Ms. Due does.

I enjoyed it, and might even re-read it again, just to watch Angela and Cory again.

Comments

[skygiants]

I'm about three-quarters of the way through reading this book now! And enjoying it a lot - I really do think that while it follows the horror-story tropes, the strength is in the characters. Angela and Cory are really compelling, and the rest of the cast is also very strong (Naomi is my personal favorite.)