*I received a free copy of this novel from NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my honest review.*
I can't believe that I put this book off as long as I did. What a fantastic debut novel for Karryn Mayne and I am adding her to my authors to follow on Goodreads. And recommending this book to everyone!
On the surface, Lenny Marks is set in her ways and one could assume it is due to being on a spectrum of some sort. That is certainly what I thought for most of the novel. Her schedule is never changing - grocery store, food, work - every week it is all the same thing. Until she realizes that she is lonely, admits it to her mum, and her mum starts pushing her to make friends at work and to engage. And when a letter from the parole board is delivered to her at work, it starts a spiral of changes that Lenny can't stop.
Lenny's quirkiness with her anagrams to calm herself sometimes had me thinking - "wait... can you really make that word?" And the answer was always yes!
The novel was a great pace and with a bit of a mystery behind the parole board letter. and it works to dismantle Lenny's world piece by piece until she is precariously close to collapse. The characters are fantastic and Lenny's loneliness is palpable. Her actions to try and make friends and adjust to the outside world are enough to bring her (and me) back to being alone in her home and disregarding every chance to change her life.
I want to say that I hope I can read more about Lenny Marks, but in order for that to happen she needs another mystery and I would very much rather for her to live her life in the peace that she finds!
Five stars!! A must read!
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