Up from the Blue (ARC)
by Susan Henderson
Harper Paperback
336 pages

Up from the Blue is not a book I would typically read. I am a fan of quirky books with characters exaggerated to the point of being satirical. But I have been a fan of Susan Henderson’s LitPark web site for some time now and I have been hearing bits and pieces about her debut novel for a while. A couple months ago Harper Perennial sent me an e-mail asking if I was interested in any upcoming books to review. When I saw Up from the Blue on that list I was compelled to ask for a review copy of it.

I wasn’t disappointed.

Up from the Blue is the story of Tillie Harris’s childhood. She lives with her military father, who likes everything in an orderly fashion, and Mara, Tillie’s mother who suffers from depression. Mara’s depression gets so bad that she never leaves the house, doesn’t bathe or prepare food, and does nothing but sit around all day reading (can I be depressed too?). Tillie’s father reaches his breaking point and when the family packs up and moves to Washington, D.C., Tillie discovers that her mother is no longer living with them and her father refuses to speak about her. He doesn’t even to tell Tillie where her mother went. Tillie must find a way to cope with her new school, a lack of friends, and a father who rarely talks to her. She is alone in a new town.

Eventually in the novel Tillie finds out what happened to her mother. I don’t want to go in to details because the mystery surrounding her disappearance was one of the more compelling aspects of the first half of the book. In the later half, the reader watches as the family tries to come together and be a functional family once more. Since all of the characters in Susan’s novel have different things that drive them, it’s clear that not everybody will get their way, so the question I had while I was reading was how is this broken family going to end up at the end of the book.

While reading I was torn between which parent I felt was the “villain” of the story. Tillie’s Dad, who Tillie dislikes even into her adulthood, is dispassionate and treats her like a child. While Mara, who tries to be a good mother, fails Tillie by being unable to overcome her problem. Due to Tillie being treated as a child and never really being told what is going on between her parents, the reader never knows the whole story of what has happened until the end of the book.

In the end I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The story about a complicated mother-daughter relationship isn’t something I would go for normally, but Susan Henderson has created a touchy story with just enough mystery to keep me engaged. Add to that a handful of characters who all stand out in my mind as being memorable and that story you are left with is one that you will be thinking about after you’ve finished the book. I’ve already recommend the book to one of my friends, but I think you should check it out as well.

Second Opinions:
My 5 Monkeys
Simply Wait
camera-obscura

I’m super annoyed.

I just dropped one of my favorite books in toilet water. It was clean toilet water but still. I have standards. It was Jennifer Government by Max Barry. I’ve read the book previously (my review) but felt the need to re-read it after I finished Company. This gives me an excuse to buy the book it in hardcover instead of my UK paperback. Max Barry is one of my favorite authors which is why I allow myself to re-read his books. Since there are so many books out there waiting to be read, I typically never re-read a book. There’s something new out there waiting to be discovered why go back to something where you already know how it ends.

Luckily, I tend to read more than one book at a time so I still have Susan Henderson’s Up from the Blue to finish which apparently has a book trailer.

So far I am enjoying the book.