Book Review – In the Blink of an Eye by Jesse Blackadder #BookReview #BookBlogger #AmReading

by Shalini, posted in Book Reviews, Fiction

Life can change in 30 seconds and leave us devastated in 60 seconds. What can I say about grief? It affects all of us in different ways, and sometimes there are no right or wrong ways, just ways which are both right to each other.

Finn and Bridget have moved houses with their sons, 16 year old Jarrah and 2 1/2 year old Toby. The family lives a happy outdoorsy kind of routine life in the new place with sea and the swimming pool and fun. When tragedy strikes one morning….

The book by Jesse Blackadder deals with the aftermath of that tragedy and the way the members of the family deal with it in the next 36 days. Told from the POV of the parents Finn and Bridget and teenage son Jarrah, their emotions, their sacrifices, and their dilemma just seeps into the pages.

The story has been written based on the tragedy which occurred in the author’s life 40 years ago, and that makes it all the more poignant. The book made me feel all the emotions, the days prior and post tragedy were well shown. The book had its niggles. Only the mother’s POV was written in second person You, and that made it odd reading for me, it broke my rhythm. And the ending felt a bit rushed and different.

Overall, an emotional read on a Tuesday afternoon.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and publisher St. Martin’s Press, and this is my journey into its pages, straight from the heart!!

All my reviews can be found here

Would you read such a book where the story pivots on a tragedy?

Jesse Blackadder is an award-winning novelist, short story writer, freelance journalist and a budding screenwriter. Her novel The Raven’s Heart won the Benjamin Franklin award for historical fiction, and she was awarded an Antarctic Arts Fellowship for her novel Chasing the Light.

The Brennans―parents, Finn and Bridget, and their sons, Jarrah and Toby―have made a sea change, from chilly Hobart, Tasmania, to subtropical Murwillumbah, New South Wales. Feeling like foreigners in this land of sun and surf, they’re still adjusting to work, school, and life in a sprawling purple clapboard house, when one morning, tragedy strikes.

In the devastating aftermath, the questions fly. What really happened? And who’s to blame? Determined to protect his family, Finn finds himself under the police and media spotlight. Guilty and enraged, Bridget spends nights hunting answers in the last place imaginable. Jarrah―his innocence lost―faces a sudden and frightening adulthood where nothing is certain.

Publication Date: 19th March 2019

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

25 thoughts on “Book Review – In the Blink of an Eye by Jesse Blackadder #BookReview #BookBlogger #AmReading”

  4. Pingback: This Week’s New Book Releases And Reviews – 2019/12. – Swift Coffee

  9. I don’t know why I assumed that this is a thriller. I love a good, emotional read. This sounds great though heavier since it touches on the author’s life. Still one I’d like to read though. Great review.

    Liked by 1 person

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