The Child Across the Street
by Kerry Wilkinson

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Damien speaks in constant hushed tones, as if there’s a militant librarian on our tail.

 

He’s utterly unremarkable, neither short nor tall; fat or thin; attractive or not. If I wasn’t looking at him, I’m not sure I’d be able to describe him.

 

it’s hard to say no to anything she asks. There’s also the not small matter that, when Diane says something, it very much feels like that thing should be done immediately… If Diane was after world domination instead of daytime television ratings, she’d be dangerous.

 

Kirsty is silently fuming, like she accidentally shredded a winning lottery ticket.

 

There’s a somewhat childish instinct of it not being my mess to begin with –but there’s also the fact that I simply don’t want to do it. It’s one of the great underrated benefits of being an adult that, if you don’t want to do something, you can simply say no.

 

It makes me ache for those friendships of youth. The ones that feel like they’ll last forever before things like marriage, kids, houses and everything else gets in the way. As an adult, there’s nothing quite like it.

 

 

My Review:

 

This was a slowly developing, gradually unfolding, and curiously tantalizing tale laced together with heartbreaking revelations and dangerously damaged characters who were oddly compelling while largely unlikable. My inquisitive nature was prodded and poked with this new to me wily author’s maddeningly paced disclosures, and insightful yet terse observations and profound insights. While I was often impatient with the main character of Abi while assuming she was just a self-indulgent alcoholic, I later realized Mr.Wilkinson’s character development was rather elegant and clever as only after her history was revealed did I piece together and understood the cause and nature of her memory loss and mental dysfunction. I thought I had the culprit sussed early – silly me, I was so very wrong and never saw this ending coming. I could do with more of Mr. Wilkinson’s clever scheming and interesting turns of phrase in my future.