Liz Jensen

I was anticipating a much stronger fantasy/magical realist element here. Blurb talks about a boy who survives eight major accidents, one for each year of his life, and on his ninth birthday falls off a cliff and into a coma. While in the coma he encounters a mysterious figure inside his head. While none of that description is inaccurate, the explanation in the novel is out of the realm of the literary crime/psychological thriller genre rather than the fantasy/supernatural genre.

While I feel somewhat misled, therefore, the novel was still an acceptable read. None of the characters - the mother Natalie Drax, the father Pierre Drax, the coma expert Dr. Dannachet - are quite what they appear to be when first introduced, and as the story unfolds it takes some disturbing turns. Ironically, the "major reveal" comes about near the end of the novel through a supernatural device that by that point felt a bit forced and out of place, and the book takes an odd though brief turn into philosophizing about the innate nature of women that had me cocking an eyebrow quizzically.

… (mais)