“Lucy Lives with her husband, Jake and their two boys. Her life is devoted to her children, her days, mapped out by their finally tune routine. Until a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message. His wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband. He thought she should know. Lucy is distraught. She decides to stay with Jake, if only for their children sake, but in order to even the score, they agreed that she will hurt him three times. Jake Will not know when the hurt is coming, or what form it will take. And so begins a delicate game of crime and punishment, from which there is no return…”
Review:
“Deeply unsettling” author Daisy Johnson said of this book, and honestly I think that’s the perfect description. For me though this wasn’t necessarily horror, and fantasy is a stretch at best, but let’s backtrack a bit.
This story was about grief. Lucy is grieving and trying to heal from a monumental wound. She by no means is a pillar of a healthy psyche, but even in her worst moments I felt her humanity. I saw her emotions however ugly, and was on her side 100% of the time. We support women’s rights and most importantly women’s wrongs on this page. Her rage and sorrow, her guilt and her forgiveness. Lucy was a complicated person and at the center of it all is her fascination with harpies.
Let’s talk about them mythical bird women, shall we? I loved the metaphor, I loved the parallel and I loved how our narrator saw herself so much in these mythical creatures. The story was strong and compelling, and while not a lot happens over the course of these two hundred pages, I stayed intrigued about where Miss Hunter was taking us…
And then she lost me at Part IV. Uh, Megan, what the fuck was that? Sure, we had some lore about harpies and harpy related memories from Lucy. However, that doesn’t equate to a proper lead up to whatever the FUCK those last dozen or so pages were. Now, my initial thought was that Lucy just went absolutely batshit. Crazy bitches I can get down with. But after sitting with it, and seeing that this book is categorized as “realistic fantasy,” I am genuinely so confused.
Am I supposed to believe that actually happened? On the one hand, let’s say I choose the less offensive line and see the end of this book as a psychotic break. Cool. I’m gonna need more than that. Up until the final punishment, it seems she’s just a woman scorned who has made some questionable, sometimes mildly violent choices. Sure I could see us getting to psychotic break at some point but there was a gap in between, there was a disconnect. And that’s the better of the two options.
On the other hand, this author wants me to believe in a fantasy element, when there has been ZERO indication up until the end. Zilch. Nada. Ríen. NIETS. What absolute whiplash. I don’t want to believe in this option truly. So to preserve my good feelings towards the really great aspects of this book, I’m choosing to believe in the former.
Overall, unsettling (commendatory) and batshit crazy (derogatory). 3.5 out of 5 stars. Definitely got me out of my reading slump though so I look forward to seeing you on the next review! As always, let me know your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments!
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