Little Disasters

Another NetGalley review! This book will be published in about a month.

Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and Atria for my honest review.*

Liz is a pediatrician on the night shift in the local ER when her estranged friend, Jess, brings in her baby, Betsey. Jess hasn't noticed that Betsey has a severe bump on her head and Jess's story doesn't add up for the injury. Liz's duty is to Betsey and her supervisor requests that she call in protective services to investigate. Liz is also dealing with an alcoholic mother who tells Liz about a baby she lost to SIDS that Liz doesn't recall.

The story unfolds in multiple story lines and from Liz's, Jess's, and several other's points of view. What was going through each of their minds as new information is revealed. The writing was fantastically descriptive and I found myself feeling all of the emotions from Jess and understanding all of Liz's doubts about what she was learning and what she knew about Jess throughout their whole friendship.

I know that some people might not enjoy the split time lines, but they don't bother me at all. When they are done well, I feel like the story unfolds one nibble at a time and it becomes very hard to put the book down. This novel kept jumping back to 10 years ago, 4 years ago, 30+ years ago, and then to the day of the accident and it was always just the right amount unfolding bit by bit to keep me guessing and to make me keep reading late into the night just to find out what really happened!

The only distraction that I found was that the use of the colons and semi colons felt overwhelming. It was a little distracting until I got used to seeing them several times in each chapter. I'm not saying that they were used incorrectly at all, but it was not something that I have seen used so much in fiction. I should add that I mostly listen to audio books and some of my favorite authors use the colon and semi colons frequently but I don't see them while listening. And this will not keep me from reading more from this author.


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