Carla Buckley

A strain of the bird flu hits the US and kills half the population. The story follows one family, told mostly from the viewpoint of the mother, as they try to avoid both the virus and the other dangers of a crumbling society.
Written in 2010 but reads like it was written post-Covid, for all the eerie similarities. To further the creep factor for me, it's set in Columbus, Ohio. I don't think I could have made it through the book a couple of years ago, but I found it an interested read now that we seem to be out of the thick of our own pandemic.… (más)

It's interesting reading a book about a pandemic when you are living through a pandemic. Though the pandemic described in this book is much, much worse. This book was written in 2010. The pandemic involved is a version of the bird flu. The book focuses on one family - a family that has been fractured but that comes together when the world around them falls apart. The husband is an avian researcher - so he is one of the first people to know how bad things are getting as the bird flu spreads around the globe. He moves back in with his estranged wife - bringing a displaced graduate student along with him - and their two children. As the events unfold we see how each person responds differently, and how this group helps and hinders each other as they try to survive food shortages, cold, and isolation. Difficult choices like whether or not to take in an abandoned baby and who to trust when venturing out into the world make the reader think about what defines us as humans and what qualities help or hinder us when our lives are on the line. A good read, if a bit dated.… (más)

The Liar’s Child by Carla Buckley

March 2019
Random House
Fiction, psychological drama

I received a digital copy of this ARC from NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an unbiased review.

This story is told from multiple POV with alternating narrators with questionable reliability. Based near North Carolina’s Outer Banks, several lives are devastated and not just from the impending hurricane. The Liar’s Child is just about anyone’s child given the complicated family histories and differing perspectives of reality. It seems most families have secrets or untold truths which ultimately get retold or misrepresented over the years.

The Nelson family live in an apartment complex called the Paradise which coincidently is anything but a paradise. Life is difficult for 12-year old Cassie and her 5-year old brother, “Boon” primarily due to their ineffective parents. It seems that as much as the parents express their love for their children they lack the mental and physical ability to protect them. It’s no wonder that Cassie is acting out and hanging with high school hooligans and Boon sucks his thumb, wets himself and considers his stuffed animals his friends.

The father, Whit Nelson, seems to spend most of his time compensating for his wife’s mental instability while working as a full time hotel manager to keep CPS from taking his kids. While it seems that he has good intentions, he clearly spreads himself too thin trying to placate his parents who live an hour away and Thompson his demanding boss.

As if this isn’t enough, Paradise becomes the home for Sara Lennox, a con artist forced into Federal protective custody to avoid prison. As much as she tries to remain uninvolved with the tumultuous family living next door, she gets drawn into their lives reminding her of her own childhood. Unfortunately, her story only feels partially explored with an unsatisfactory ending.

As the hurricane approaches, Sara is compelled to do the right thing by rescuing the 2 kids next door when their father doesn’t return from an errand. Trying to escape the elements they eventually end up at a motel where they encounter more people trying to escape their past. Hank is a retired sherif still grieving the loss of his wife and son many years prior. Due to his own denial and feelings of regret he focuses his energy on “all” the missing children in the news. Honestly, I wasn’t sure where his storyline was going as his obsession is rather creepy!

I enjoyed the pace of the story and the twists and turns but didn’t feel like the story was complete at the end. I felt like it “skipped” parts and just put a bow on it leaving many questions unnecessarily up in the air.… (más)