Synopsis: One hot summer day, a family drives to a clearing in order to collect firewood for the coming winter. Jenny and Wade, husband and wife, mum and dad, are in charge of cutting the trees and stacking, May and June, aged 6 and 9, play in the woods and drink lemonade. Then something shockingly horrible happens and the family is torn apart forever.
Take your picture off the wall
So I won’t have to see your eyes
And maybe soon I won’t recall
The painful things that once were nice
This is one of those pieces of literature that is so beautiful and so emotional that it’s hard to get your words out. I’m stuck on how to convey the beauty and excellence of this book.
Told through several different perspectives over several different years, this novel is a character study of how one event can affect so many different people. If you’re into slow paced, character focused novels with little mystery and action, then this novel is going to become one of your favourites.
Without going through every single character and scene, I feel like it’s not easy to comment on this novel, but I don’t really want to give anything away because I think this is a book you should start off with, not knowing much about it. If Ruskovich wanted you to know more about this piece of work, she’d have written a different synopsis.
All I can say about this book is that it’s a must read debut for 2017. I’m looking forward to more of Ruskovich’s work.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Vintage Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.
BookBum 
I’m reading this later this week, my book club has picked this for our Feb pick so I’m happy to hear you liked it so much!
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I really hope you enjoy it! Don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be a fast paced mystery otherwise you won’t like it!
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Ok good to know, I don’t mind slower paced mysteries as long as they eventually pull all the story threads together in a good way:)
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It does bring the story in together really well! It’s not too much of a mystery though, it’s far more a character development novel
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I had read mixed reviews of this book so I’m glad you enjoyed it so much 😀 I think I’m going to wait and see..
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It’s not going to be for everyone. It’s very moving and character focused, but I thought it was beautiful!
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I’m glad you loved Idaho so much. I thought it was good, not great, but still good. For me it was all really Ann’s story even though that revolved around Jenny, Wade and the girls.
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Yes, I agree and I preferred reading about Ann the most, although the parts with Elizabeth were interesting too. I’m glad you thought it was good! 🙂
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