Book review - What Beauty There Is

 

Title: What Beauty There Is

Author: Cory Anderson

Genre: realistic fiction

Similar books: Some Kind of Animal by Maria Romasco-Moore

                      Bad Call by Stephen Wallenfels

Rating: 

 

doesn't quite live up to its literary aspirations

Summary (provided by publisher): To understand the truth, you have to start at the beginning.
Winter in Idaho. The sky is dark. It is cold enough to crack bones.
Living in harsh poverty, Jack Dahl is holding his breath. He and his younger brother have nothing—except each other. And now Jack faces a stark choice: lose his brother to foster care or find the drug money that sent his father to prison.
He chooses the money.
Ava Bardem lives in isolation, a life of silence. For seventeen years her father, a merciless man, has controlled her fate. He has taught her to love no one. Now Victor Bardem is stalking the same money as Jack. When he picks up on Jack’s trail, Ava must make her own wrenching choice: remain silent or speak, and help the brothers survive.
Choices. They come at a price.

My opinion: This is a story largely reminiscent of The Lovely Bones, though this one is a bit more pedestrian. We have poverty, drugs, and the constant struggle for survival. Jack's struggle to keep himself and his brother alive and out of the system, his dilemma about the drug money, would be enough to make this compelling. But Anderson adds in romantic entanglement, constant action, and some needlessly graphic gore. While the story was initially interesting, I found it tiresome as the book progressed and the criminals played a larger role in the plot. Criminals who were more parodies than complex characters.

Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley