Pictures of You (Center Point Premier Fiction (Large Print))

by Caroline Leavitt

[Leah]

Two women running away from their marriages collide on a foggy highway, killing one of them. The survivor, Isabelle, is left to pick up the pieces, not only of her own life, but of the lives of the devastated husband and fragile son that the other woman, April, has left behind. Together, they try to solve the mystery of where April was running to, and why. As these three lives intersect, the book asks, How well do we really know those we love—and how do we forgive the unforgivable?

I first heard about Caroine Leavitt’s latest novel Pictures of You when Danielle posted about it on the site. I was immediately taken in by the book cover, which shows a camera floating in the sky, with angel’s wings attached. It was mesmerising, and is one of the most beautiful book covers I think I’ve ever seen. I added it to my mental wish-list, it’s a long list (believe me) so when I bought myself an Amazon Kindle, I browsed on the Kindle store and came across Pictures of You for only 5€ so I did what any book addict would do: I bought myself the novel. After reading the first two Stephanie Plum novels I was looking for something a bit meatier and plumped for this one and I don’t regret it for a second.

Pictures of You is the kind of novel you wish you’d written. Well, I wish I’d written it anyway because it’s beautiful. I don’t think I will read a better written novel, because the language and the flow of the words was just stunning. The plot is also incredibly brilliant. It’s the kind of plot where you can easily imagine yourself in the same situation. I kept thinking, how would I feel in Isabelle’s shoes? It asks a lot of questions of the reader, that’s for sure. I do feel that anything I say about the book won’t do it justice. It’s the type of book you just have to read, it’s the type of book you have to read to truly understand why I loved it so much. To see for yourself the cleverness of the plot, the brilliance of the writing. It’s so much more than just a novel. Pictures of You makes you question yourself, it makes you question what the characters are seeing, hearing, believing. I promise you, this book will stay with me long after I’ve finished reading it. Photography plays a huge part in the novel, with Isabelle being a photographer and I could sense just how much photography meant to Isabelle and to Sam, who picks up photography as a hobby. It’s threaded through the entire novel and it made me want to go out and buy a film camera, to see what Charlie and Isabelle see every time they lift their eyes to the lens to take a picture.

I love that the synopsis of the book is so short, and doesn’t give away much detail because to write a synopsis for the book would take a long time to craft perfectly because you want people to be enticed by the story, you don’t want to give it all away before they’ve even flicked to the first page. And the synopsis for Pictures of You entices you in nicely. Why was April in the middle of the road the day Isabelle drove into her? Why was she three hours away from her home in the Cape Cod. I was desperate to find out, but even more than that, I was desperate to learn more about Isabelle because, after all, she killed a person, but it wasn’t her fault. How does a person deal with something like that? How do you get over the fact you killed somebody? Throw in April’s husband Charlie and son Sam and you have a brilliant full-circle story, as Isabelle finds herself drawn to Charlie and, more so, to Sam. It seemed wrong but it also seemed so, so right. There are so many emotions swirling through the book; you’re shocked by April’s death, you’re saddened for Isabelle, Charlie and Sam, you’re intrigued as to why April was there. I felt happy, sad, angry, I felt tons of emotions while reading this book.

I found myself really taken in with all of the characters. With Isabelle, Charlie, Sam, even April despite the fact she dies at the beginning of the book. These characters found their way into my heart, long before I’d finished the book. They’re written so vividly, that they really do come to life off the pages. I could see Isabelle, with her long, dark, curly hair and I could feel her sadness over April and her sadness over what drove her to that road in the first place, the break-up of her marriage. I could feel the deep grief Charlie and Sam feel, but I could also feel the hope Sam has to hear from his mother again and it killed me that he wouldn’t acknowledge his mother’s death. The way Sam and Charlie mesh together after April’s death was heart-warming, it really was. Charlie could have easily gone to pieces and though he did in private, whenever Sam was around he did his best to take his and his son’s mind off the tragedy. But what I loved most was the relationship between Isabelle and Sam. It’s bittersweet, but hopeful.

Pictures of You took my by surprise. It blew me away, there’s no doubt of that but even though the book didn’t end how I expected it to, it just made me love it even more. Because it wasn’t happy ever after. It was real. I thought Caroline Leavitt made a big, brave step with how she took things between Isabelle, Sam and Charlie. I was heart-broken, but it was right. Pictures of You is a truly special novel. It’s written so perfectly that at times I just didn’t want to put it down and I could have happily stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning to finish it. The writing style was so absorbing, leaving me wanting more, craving more. The way the story switches between Isabelle, Charlie and Sam is perfect, allowing us to see the twists and turns how they themselves see it. This is a book everybody should read, I don’t gush about books lightly any more, but Pictures of You blew me away from page one. It’s worth your time and it’s worth your money. The story is absorbing the writing is stunning and it’s such a well-rounded novel that I found no faults with the book. It was perfect. And it’s rare you can say that about a novel.