Category: Book Reviews

I’m left with mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, it was a well-written story about a dysfunctional family who (as it turns out) is even more dysfunctional than they thought. On the other hand, it dragged at the beginning, which made it difficult to buy into the urgency of parts of the plot.

First the good. I thought the author did a terrific job of laying out the background of the family. We definitely got to know Carla and her sister and mom. There was not a lot of love lost between all of them.

I also liked how the events necessitated Carla finding out all of the information first and then had to put it all together. I thought the way that she got to know the people of the area added to the mystery of the past that she uncovered.

Indeed, who wouldn’t want a crime like that to be solved?

I also thought that the crime itself was intriguing enough to keep me interested and that the chapters from a victim’s point of view interspersed added to the tension.

However, what was good (the background on the family and laying groundwork for Carla’s discovery) also almost derailed the book for me.

I felt like it took a long time for everything to really kick into gear. The beginning, while interesting, did seem to plod along in some places.

I am glad that I stuck with it, because it did pick up pace in the middle and that continued to the end.

I guess what I’m trying to say is give this one a chance, and stick with it, because it was ultimately an entertaining read.

Author Bio

Jennifer Harvey is a Scottish writer now living in Amsterdam.

Her short fiction has appeared in various publications in the US, Canada, and the UK and she has been shortlisted for the Bristol Prize, the Bridport Prize and placed third in the University of Sunderland Short Story Award. Her novels have been longlisted for the Bath Novel Award and her radio dramas have also won prizes and commendations from the BBC World Service.

Alongside writing, she is a Resident Reader for Carve Magazine, an editor for Carve Critiques, and serves as a member of the Editorial Board for Ellipsis Magazine. When not writing, she can be found sauntering along the Amsterdam canals, dreaming up new stories.

I really enjoy it when an author writes a story that becomes about more than one thing as I read it. The Girl in the Picture by Melissa Wiesner is a perfect case in point.

For example, it’s a road-trip story. I loved that aspect. My husband and I took a similar road trip several years ago (NY to CA and back) where we took detours to see specific locations and tourist attractions.

We did it with two cats, but that’s another story.

So, I was able to relate to that part of the story: the sketchy motels, the junk food diets, the hole-in-the-wall bars…except the one we happened into actually involved bullets on the floor.

Again, that’s another story.

But I loved the adventure part of the plot because it fed into the next type of story it was.

This was also a journey of two characters. Beyond the road trip, it was the story of two people who were searching for answers as they traveled. Individually, they had their own issues that they were dealing with (which I’ll get to in a minute), but their trip actually created more questions.

Both of them were trying to escape (which is the perfect fodder for a road trip). Along the way, they realized that going it alone wasn’t necessarily the best way to deal with things. This leads me to the third type of book this was.

I have come to the realization that opposites attract is one of my favorite tropes. Maybe it’s because of my personal life, maybe it’s because I find it fascinating to watch (read) two people who have seemingly nothing in common actually find similarities and realize what is really important.

That is the heart of this novel.

I truly loved the arcs of Jack and Tegan, both separately and together. They had each faced tragedy and life troubles and were searching for a future that could provide happiness (as they defined it originally). But again, what they thought would be the solution changed as they traveled with each other.

I didn’t think that either character was overdone or a caricature of a “type.” There was just enough information and background about each to make them believable…and likable.

And I think that is what made this book so enjoyable – it was even, honest, and realistic. There were no attempts at twists or forcing emotion. It was just real.

Another (possibly more obvious) thing I liked about this book was the road trip being a metaphor for the journey the characters took. The physical for the spiritual, the concrete for the esoteric.

I don’t need to go into details about the backstories, because you can find those elsewhere, and they really didn’t matter to me. The overall goal of the book was crystal clear, and it is what grabbed me and held my attention.

I also liked that the author didn’t wrap it up immediately in a neat bow. Life isn’t like that (most of the time). The way everything was resolved was realistic and gave the story much more credibility.

We all have that person or experience that has etched itself on our souls, that we can’t forget no matter what else happens in life. The author did an excellent job of relaying the importance of those types of connections.

The Girl in the Picture is by far one of my favorite books of the year. I look forward to more from Melissa Wiesner.

Author Bio:
Melissa Wiesner is a night-owl who began writing novels about five years ago when her early-to-bed family retired for the evening. In 2019, she won the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® Award in the Mainstream Fiction Category for her first novel. Melissa holds two Master’s Degrees in Public Health and Community Agency Counseling. Her day job is in Social Work where she often encounters people knocked down by hard times but who pick themselves up and keep going, just like the characters of her novels. Melissa lives in Pittsburgh, PA with her charming husband and two adorable children.