#BookReview ‘Bloodline’ by Jess Lourey

About the book…

Perfect town. Perfect homes. Perfect families. It’s enough to drive some women mad…

In a tale inspired by real events, pregnant journalist Joan Harken is cautiously excited to follow her fiancé back to his Minnesota hometown. After spending a childhood on the move and chasing the screams and swirls of news-rich city life, she’s eager to settle down. Lilydale’s motto, “Come Home Forever,” couldn’t be more inviting.

And yet, something is off in the picture-perfect village.

The friendliness borders on intrusive. Joan can’t shake the feeling that every move she makes is being tracked. An archaic organization still seems to hold the town in thrall. So does the sinister secret of a little boy who vanished decades ago. And unless Joan is imagining things, a frighteningly familiar figure from her past is on watch in the shadows.

Her fiancé tells her she’s being paranoid. He might be right. Then again, she might have moved to the deadliest small town on earth

Set in the same universe as her previous novel, ‘Unspeakable Things’, and loosely based on true stories, this re-affirms Lilydale as a place which could easily give Royston Vasey a run for it’s money….

The late 1960’s were an era where women were still expected to obey certain social conventions-school, marriage, babies-whilst second wave feminism and women’s rights were taking a hold of a generation who wanted control over their own destinies.

1968 was the year that the Abortion Act was passed in the UK as well as access to contraceptive pills for all women regardless of income or social class.

It was also a year of monumental change as the idealistic, post war 50’s baby boomers came crashing into the end of the 20th century where freedom came at a very, very high cost. In amongst this turmoil, Jess places her narrator, Joan, straight in the center and from here unravels a story of deceipt, deception and a damning exploration of the worst things about small town life.

Having been mugged, and feeling vulnerable because she is pregnant and alone (her mother having recently passed away), it is pretty easy for her boyfriend to convince her to move to his home town (local motto ‘Come Home Forever’ would have been enough to get my spidey senses twitching).

She is warmly welcomed by a family and a community which is nothing like she has ever felt before, but when she notices that the neighbours are spying on her, and that every part of her life is openly discussed by the entire town, she starts to get concerned.

Is it paranoia?

Is she just reacting against something she has never experienced before, so needs to acclimatise?

Or is it something more insidious?

The first person narrative really made me feel connected and scared for Joan, at the same time, you can see how quickly she starts doubting herself as the in-laws and her boyfriend and the local doctor start planting seeds about her not being able to cope, and soon enough, she has only two choices-submit or fight back.

I loved this book, it was moving, thrilling and really , really creepy, and that it is based on real life events added an eerie undertone to the whole novel. Jess is so very good at taking the core elements of social control and making it relevant to the reader, and making you care about the outcomes of her stories. I cannot wait until October 21, when her next novel, Litani is published.

About the author…

Jess Lourey writes about secrets.

She is the Amazon Charts bestselling author of nonfiction, YA adventure, magical realism, and crime fiction. She’s a tenured professor of writing and sociology, a recipient of The Loft’s Excellence in Teaching fellowship, a Psychology Today blogger, a TEDx presenter (check out her TEDx Talk to discover the surprising inspiration behind ‘May Day’, her first published novel), and a leader of writing retreats for women.

She lives in Minneapolis with her family and foster cats (and occasional foster puppies, but man those goobers are a lot of work)

Links-http://jessicalourey.com/

Twitter @jesslourey