I received an advance copy of this audiobook via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Jessamyn St. German is going to be a star. She knows it and soon everyone else will too. When we meet Jessamyn she’s an usher at the Franklin, a regional theatre in Vancouver, but she’s gunning for the lead role in the Franklin’s next production – Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music. Jessamyn loves musicals. Musicals are transcendent; they lift people out of their everyday boring lives and Jessamyn has no interesting in acting in boring, dark plays and she doesn’t want to sully her resume with too many commercial roles.
But instead of Maria, Jessamyn is offered a role taking care of the children in the cast of The Sound of Music. It doesn’t take long though for her to realize that this position means she’s perfectly poised if anything should happen to the lead actress.
Jessamyn is our narrator throughout and her somewhat deranged narration leads us through the plot. It doesn’t take long for the reader to realize that Jessamyn isn’t quite as talented as she believes herself, or to see that she’s sabotaging her own career in a variety of ways. She’s completely self-absorbed, proud of herself for having two boyfriends, each of which she gets something different. At the same time, we see her vulnerability, the ways in which she’s barely hanging on. One of her boyfriends started off as a stalker until she decided it was better to simply enjoy his adoration. And when we start to witness her relationship with her father, and understand something that happened to her during an early role in musical theatre, we begin to understand how Jessamyn got to this place.
Here’s the thing: I wanted to feel sympathy for Jessamyn. Sure, she’s deranged and she needs a really good reality check, but I basically wanted a happy ending for her. And it seemed like it was going to be that kind of story for the first two-thirds. Then the story takes a sharp veer into darkness and it started feeling more and more chaotic. Honestly, it felt like way too much crammed into the final hour of listening to this and then not enough loose ends tied up. It felt like the book itself didn’t quite know what it was and the more deranged Jessamyn gets, the more deranged the story becomes. Maybe that was the point. After all, Jessamyn is the one telling the story.
All together, I definitely wanted to keep listening but I would have liked a tighter final story. I found myself wanting to rush through it and starting to notice more and more repetitions – three different people cry into Jessamyn’s armpit, for example. Jessamyn as narrator is so overwrought – which works for her character – but means sometimes I just wanted to move on in the scene. Stephanie Willing as narrator was great though, bringing the right pathos to voice this character.
The story is set in Vancouver, which I was excited about (is that very Canadian of me?) and then very disappointed. The location really could have been anywhere and as someone pretty familiar with Vancouver, I couldn’t help critique certain parts. How could a character who others think is homeless afford rent in the Dunbar neighbourhood? Another character is attacked on Granville Island and there are no witnesses? It felt like there were a lot of missed opportunity for more detail in the setting but that is likely my own preference speaking.
Karissa Reads Books 
A familiar setting is often a two-edged sword. I find that with books set in Glasgow, that I start out full of enthusiasm and then start becoming hypercritical about things that the author has got wrong or some aspect of the city she’s showing in a way which doesn’t ring true to me. Sometimes reading about places you don’t know can be more relaxing!
I love when authors do choose a specific place, even if it’s one I don’t know. But then when you know it, it’s hard to not notice even small inaccuracies. Granville Island is a crowded tourist spot of markets and shops and boats coming and going all around. There’s no way you could attack someone there during the day without witnesses!
Hahaha, should your husband be worried that you scope places out for their suitability as murder sites? 😉
Hahaha, only on certain days! We mostly go to Granville Island to visit a particular doughnut shop!
I actually laughed out loud when I read about the characters crying in her armpit 🤣 You’re right about the setting; if the author picks a place, that world has to be so real on paper.
I do like when authors choose a specific place rather than a vague city. But then they definitely need to make sure they’re being accurate.
I know my other blog friend, Bill, from Australia, is a big believer in validating whether the landscape is accurate in fiction. He goes further than most people I know!
It’s important! Grounding a story in a specific place can add so much but it can also take a reader out of the story if it doesn’t feel accurate.
Hmm I saw ECW pushing this book and thought it wasn’t for me. I just wasn’t interested in reading about another unstable woman who descends further and further into madness. Sigh.
That’s very fair!