Chasm
My thoughts are actually on par with Carol Rigg's review. The writing is good. It keeps you there. The prologue focuses on a cop dealing with a train accident, but we never go back to the cop. I think his part should have been left out because it doesn't help the plot at all. The story then alternates between an unknown man and our protagonist, Taylor.The unknown man creeped me out. Why is he living in the forest and hearing things and acting strangely (he smears his own blood on his face)? I don't think Kuhl wanted us to feel creeped out so keeping that small part out would have eliminated the creep potential. I noticed a lot of parallels between Taylor's alcoholism and Brett's and how some of the characters seemed to be in similar worlds of wandering, having lost something important from their lives. There's even a point where Taylor acts as giddy as the unknown man when she's in the forest, and I was startled by their shared reaction (especially since they are for different reasons and they come from different people), and I thought Kuhl could have made all of these commonalities more significant and more clearly understood. I was really confused why Taylor was best friends with Peggy and Brett. Peggy doesn't act like a good friend and Brett and Taylor have a secret affair and he acts like such a slimeball. He makes a copy of her house key and she doesn't even get upset? None of them are good to each other. I was, however, drawn by Taylor's hearing a child through the walls and once it's finally explained, it makes sense, but I do think Kuhl needed to go deeper into that situation as well as Taylor's past with her father's abuse as these play a crucial part in the choices she makes, like being an alcoholic. She reads some book throughout the novel and I thought mentioning what it was would have been beneficial and help us better understand Taylor's interests. This is a very dark story with a lot of mental, emotional, and verbal abuse, a lot of drinking, and a lot of despair and all of this is written in a compelling way. It's the end that troubles me because once some things are revealed, Taylor accepts them too readily and too quickly. It's not realistic. And it concerns me that someone would be so okay with all of the shocking things that have just been discovered. Still, I like her style of writing, I like how she keeps the story going and the tension high. Just need more credibility and explanation for some of the behaviors.
