Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

To be entirely honest.....I hated this book. I had high hopes from reading a few excerpts and samples so maybe I was setting myself up? Buuuuuuut ......

While there was a very intriguing start throughout the first two or three chapters it slid quickly in to a very predictable narrative. I'm about to get a rant on so I'll throw in a (view spoiler)[ warning so I don't ruin anyone's day.

I just couldn't stand to see the morphing of the two main female characters from strong and interesting in to wooden two dimensional cliches with legs. There's two separate narratives going on simultaneously because of both protagonist sand nether worked well.

It's Seattle of the 1930's. While out at work one night, forced by circumstances to leave her 3 year old son at home until she returns, returns to find her boy missing and the only clue leads out to the street. That's where the leads end. While she starts out working herself to the bone looking for him she....well, pretty much gives up after two or three days ( the police in 1930's Seattle not giving a care about the situation of the poorer denizens of the city) and winds up trading her hopes and body for the promise of help from a known playboy. Every step of the way is predictable, her burgeoning inner strength an illusion as she just gives up everything to lean on a random guy with some money and smile. It just doesn't feel right to have an openly devoted mother to just quit in everything she is trying to do because 'boohoo, a guy hurt me".

Then when she approaches her son's father, himself totally disposed to helping her from the start considering the intense love he still has for her, she seconds guesses herself and simply says 'oh...it's nothing, nevermind'. THAT WAS YOUR BEST CHANCE TO ACTUALLY GET YOUR CHILD BACK! Even with the plot twists ahead we can still see the stupidity of her jelly spine.

We also have Claire: similarly good natured and strong on the inside, also wishy washy in her relationship with the man in her life, her husband. Claire's narrative begins with being assigned a story about late season blizzards which recalls that storm of the '30's in which Vera's son was taken from his home. A good start, right? Well it quickly lost sight of that important plot thread and turned in to the focus shifting to her horrid marriage situation. Strained and neglected from the loss of a child, most understandable, but made much more dire from Clair's inability to just talk to her husband. She lets herself get paranoid, depressed and wallow in self pity and regret when all she had to do was take ten minutes to talk to him and iron things out.

We do get enough of the main storyline to remind us of what's going on but until almost about 2/3rds in it's all just failed relationships and depressing dependency issues. I don't mean depressing as in it shapes the character or moves the plot along but rather the slow crawl of pathetic situations with an apathetic and resigned player. Just the setup in the beginning of a likable character base leads to high hopes so when the realization of what's going on hits it's tedious from there.

Perhaps if Jio had split this in to a duology it would work. Two books that intersect in story, a larger space to fully develop each character's personality and overall plot. It might turn out better perhaps that way?

As it is, even with the plot twists, this book just didn't make it for me.






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