Dee's Reviews > Fly Away

I've read a lot of books by Kristin Hannah and have always thought she was a good writer. With the release of Winter Garden I felt she became a great writer, which is one of the reasons this book has disappointed me.

I honestly don't remember if I read the book Firefly Lane and perhaps if I had, I would have more affection for this book. The story here is good and touches on a lot of topics, but the telling of it was very disjointed for me. It's told in several points of view, including Tully, Marah, Dorothy, and even Kate, who has died by the outset of this novel. It's also told in both first and third person and flips back and forth between present and flashback. All those POVs and time shifts made the story difficult to follow. "Present" is theoretically heralded by a date, but I still found myself questioning whether I reading about "now" or the past.

I also found the book very meandering. So many first person accounts by Tully about how lost she feels, how anxious she feels, and why don't I take another Xanax. Two of these scenes would have driven the point home. And can I say, I didn't really like Tully? I just wanted to slap her and tell her to quit whining.

The story all comes together at the end, but that was actually too quick. I felt the story was building to a face off between Tully and Dorothy, but we ultimately got very little of that.

Perhaps I need to read Firefly Lane. I suspect there's a lot of love for that novel that prompted a revisit to those characters. In the meantime, I'll await Hannah's next book, which looks much more promising.

NB: I received this book from a GoodReads giveaway.