Kickitat by Peter Rock 1.5 stars rounded to 2

[Karin]

Vivian, on meds for anxiety and emotional issues, is lonely and feeling abandoned when her older sister, Audra, runs away. Mysterious writing in an odd combination of penmanship begins to appear in one of Vivian's notebooks. Audra does return for Vivian, along with a strange young man she is clearly having a relationship, and they take Vivian along with them. Now Vivian lives underneath a house, unable to make any sound, and unable to leave except at night when Audra and her boyfriend are back from work. But things are not all they seem.

Rock can write, I think, but in this book the semi-unreal atmosphere didn't quite have the oomph I thought it could have. Certainly we have a somewhat unreliable narrator, which can work well, but the writings in the notebook fell rather flat as well. I had a difficult time getting behind Vivian who many times times had that TSTL (too stupid to live) quality about here. The paranormal part of the novel was okay, but nothing stellar.

As far as enjoyment, this was a 1 star read for me, but since it is evident Rock has literary ability in this novel which has missed the mark, I upped it to 2. Ideally, I'd give it 1.5.


I decided to keep this as fantasy, which it was tagged due to the paranormal part (sometimes called fantasy) and the mysterious writing which never was explained away.