Lianne
Written on Sep 7, 2016
From the first chapter I knew I was reading something fascinating and that I thought would enjoy. By the final third of the book, I realised how much I loved the book, something I wasn’t entirely anticipating. Firstly, it’s a beautifully written book, with lots of great quotes and really just capturing the headspace that Shelby is in, the atmosphere of the novel, that sense of soul-searching. I haven’t read enough from Alice Hoffman to say if this is distinctly her style, but I enjoy her storytelling nonetheless.
But what makes this book really compelling is Shelby herself. She can be frustrating, but it’s a good sort of frustrating in that she’s a complex person, well-rounded with her strengths and her flaws. The portrayal of guilt in this novel is realistic with the way that knowledge totally skews self-perception and affect the way you interact with the outside world and your own thoughts and everything you’ve ever known. She doesn’t feel she deserves anything after the accident, she pushes the people who care about her away, she completely screws up the good things going in her life, and it sucks but you see where she’s coming from and why she feels that way. It’s sad to see how life seems to slip by Shelby early on as she’s wrapped up in these feelings of guilt and misery and darkness but throughout the novel you also see the beauty in how she slowly repairs her life through the people she comes across, the mistakes she makes, the small acts that she initially thinks nothing of but then comes to affect her in such profound ways. She survives, she overcomes, she grows up. It’s wonderful in that sense that, despite of the sad stuff that also happens along the way, there’s that sense of hope.
I don’t know what else to say about Faithful except that it was a compelling and wonderful read and I would say one of the best books I’ve read this year. I cannot recommend it enough! :)
