Received through paperbackswap.com

If I could give this book two different star ratings, I would. And they'd be contradictory. Here's why.

It's the story of Laurel, a young social worker who works at a homeless shelter. When one of their clients, Bobbie Crocker, dies with no known relatives, Laurel is given a box of photographs found in his room. The photos bring up all sorts of questions as to who this man was, as they depict celebrities and are quite edgy, perhaps good enough to mount a show benefiting the shelter. The director of the shelter asks Laurel to do a bit of research on this man and his photos and put the show together. As she reviews the photos, she notices a photograph of herself, biking on a lonely logging road in Vermont. The photo was taken on the day she was brutally assaulted 7 years before.

Laurel becomes obsessed with the photos when she recognizes scenes from her childhood village and the home of her neighbors Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan, characters of The Great Gatsby fame. Bobbie had been in shelters and psychiatric hospitals and had supposedly worked around personalities. Some people believed him, others were skeptical and thought perhaps he was delusional. Laurel thinks she recognizes a deep secret in Bobbie's life and sets off in detective like fashion to figure this out and expose Bobbie's truth.

So that's sort of the story. Laurel had a traumatic event in her life, and this guy Bobbie was in and out of institutions. We learn about the homeless, about the effects of violent crime, and mental illness. I found this part was terrific. Other reviewers have been caught up with the writer's poor editing and mis-facts (like a child eating a caramel apple and getting red stains on her face - when caramel is sticky brown), and the fact that a male author writes in the voice of a young woman. Those things seem trivial to me compared to the themes behind the story, which are strong.
The issue I have with the book is the ending. While there were clues early on in the book, I felt like it was gimmicky and contrived. I don't read a book for the ending. I don't read whodunits. I think they're a waste of my time, and by winding up the book the way Bohjalian did, he diminished the importance of the underlying themes he was trying to explore. To me those themes were so much more important than a thrilling ending, because I didn't feel like the book was a thriller in and of itself. I kept waiting for the "thrilling" parts to happen, and they never developed. And then I felt like I'd been duped, like too many red herrings had been set up along the way.
So an 8 for thematic issues, a 2 for assembly.

Sending to NMreader as part of a surprise RABCK! I hope you enjoy it!

Thank you so much for this book. I am looking forward to reading

Donating to the Friends of the Library for their sale