Monsoon Season

by Katie O'Rourke

[Leah]

When I heard about Katie O’Rourke’s debut novel, I figured it would be similar to reading a Sophie Hannah or a Brooke Morgan novel, with a damaged heroine and a plot that you don’t generally see in Chick Lit. A darker sort of book, if you will. But if I’m honest, I’m not really 100% sure where I would slot in Monsoon Season. It’s not a psychological thriller as I had assumed, it certainly isn’t Chick Lit and there is no author I would be able to point to and say “It’s like that”. It’s not really like anything I have ever read, and to be honest, I found it a bit baffling.

Monsoon Season has a pretty basic premise that’s spelled out quite nicely in its synopsis: After Riley’s boyfriend hits her, she flees Tucson for Massachusetts, then finds out she’s pregnant, and then a major accident turns her life even more upside down (which, by the way, is a horribly clunky phrase “even more upside down”). And that is pretty much the novel. Which means, there are no surprises, and we pretty much know exactly how the book is going to go from start to almost finish. Which is disappointing. I never felt as if anything I read was particularly new, or particularly varied from what the synopsis offered. The novel would probably have had a bit more impact if we didn’t know why Riley had ran away home, nor about the major accident that occurs.

I found the way in which O’Rourke wrote the novel to be a bit odd, too. It’s told from both first-person and third-person, from multiple people, but none of the third-person perspectives actually add anything to the novel. I can understand why we hear from both Riley and Ben, in first person, but I see no need at all for Donna’s (Riley’s best friend) perspective, Carol’s (Riley’s mother) perspective, Ben’s mother’s perspective, or Riley’s brother’s perspective. All detract away from the main focus of the novel which should be Riley and add nothing to the book.

When I initially heard about the novel, I thought it would be an excellent insight into a strong woman who doesn’t stay with a man once he hits her. Now, before anyone takes that the wrong way, I do not mean those who do stay with men who hit them are weak, more that it’s against the grain for someone to take a stand and leave, and I expected a bit more ooomph from the novel. I think that the whole pregnancy thing was too much, and should have been taken out, because we just didn’t get anything from that. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. Actually, that’s wrong. The only character I felt even the slightest bit connected to was woman-hitter Ben. He’s the only one who actually had any emotion in the novel, would you believe? Riley was soulless, which perhaps is understandable after all she goes through, but I just never felt we got anything from her. I just didn’t really get the novel, sadly. It just wasn’t one I really got or liked, and that’s a shame because it sounded so interesting.