by Cathryn_Conroy: What this is: This is a thoughtful ChickLit novel gently laced with themes about the connection between art and life and the power of the human spirit to survive abuse of the human body.
What it is not: It is not literature. The book description opens by comparing this novel by Charleen Hurtubise to the novels of Colm Tóibín and Claire Keegan, who have both published numerous works of great literature. The only thing this novel has in common with these two acclaimed writers is the setting in Ireland. It’s a disservice to readers for the publisher to make this comparison because it’s far from the truth.
This is the story of 17-year-old Sarah Roy, whose drug-dealing stepfather forces her to make a drug delivery from Michigan to Florida. When the stepfather skims money off the top, Sarah’s life and that of her family is in mortal danger. But Sarah is smart and a survivor and manages to get herself to Boston where she gets a job as a nanny, working with another woman also named Sarah, nicknamed Sasa. The two unrelated women look remarkably alike. When Sarah Roy sees her traumatic family story on the front page of a Boston newspaper, she knows she must flee, so she steals Sasa’s Irish passport and hightails it to Dublin.
This is where the novel truly begins as Sarah makes a new life for herself, scrabbling it together from nothing but lies and deceptions after having stolen Sasa’s identity to start afresh. One of the first things that happens is a dear man calls her Saoirse (pronounced sear-sha), adding another layer to the ruse when she adopts that as her name, which appropriately means “freedom.” Saoirse is an incredibly talented artist, and she works out a lot of her mental anguish and the burden of so many deeply guarded secrets in her drawings and paintings. And because it’s ChickLit, there is quite a bit of love and sex spicing up the pages. Still, how long can Saoirse keep all the balls in the air before they begin to fall down on her and she gets caught in this massive fraud? And who will she hurt along the way?
The twisty-turny plot is positively riveting, albeit a bit drawn out in several places. Still, it’s the plot—and only the plot—that kept me turning the pages. The characters are pretty much one-dimensional without ever changing or growing. It is the good vs. the bad, and they never develop past that.
If you’re looking for a fast read that won’t tax your brain, this is a good choice. Just don’t expect much more than that.
Bonus: The cover art by Emma Cownie and T.S. Harris is gorgeous…absolutely stunning.
