Heather Young (1)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

She wondered whether it would have helped him to know he wasn't the only one who'd condemned himself to this particular purgatory, nor was he the only one who couldn't look at pictures of people he loved unless no one was watching

I told the person who recommended this book to me that they owe me a Gatorade. I need to be rehydrated after all the crying that this story caused. I think the last time I cried this much over a novel was with C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces. show more This book, while it is technically a whodunit, is far more of a psychological drama dealing in addiction, loss, grief, and how dealing with tragedy is handled.

The initial attraction to this book was its setting. Not a lot of literature is set in Northern Nevada, and even less in the rural areas. That being said, I was initially concerned that the author, being a non-resident, would simply lean into the gambling aura and other associated stereotypes, but Young has obviously done some research into the area and, while I'm not from Lovelock, appreciated the way the setting was handled. All in all though, the setting is more or less immaterial to the plot, which could be set in pretty much any place in the United States. One of the challenges of this setting, and in which Young excelled, was to make what a place that most people see as a little more than an exit on I80, into a place that was filled with personalities, hopes, and oftentimes crushed dreams, and in this the author excelled.

While I hate to ascribe 'themes' to literature, The Distant Dead leaned heavily into how different people handle, process, and cope with various types of losses. The narrative focus, while remaining in the third person, switches focuses between several characters. I found each to come off the page, being fully formed and emotionally vibrant. This isn't to say that they were warm and fuzzy, but I could easily imagine meeting these people, even if I wouldn't like some of them. Too often, and this critique is a cliché, characters and stories are black and white in their moral senses. Without exception, each character in this book was a shade of gray, and Young pulled this off in an entirely genuine and unforced way.

Our main character, Sal, a young and impressionable boy, is orphaned before the start of the story. Sal is special; he's exceptionally astute, impressionable and perceptive. As the protagonist, he should perhaps be the most animated of all the characters, and he was, but I was not expecting to become as emotionally involved in him as I did, and for that I cannot but rank this story very highly. show less

"In Lovelock, death sounds like music"
An unforgettable novel, the suspense builds until the very end. The conclusion, one of many possibilities. The setting is a small town filled with complex, flawed characters burdened by the past. I really enjoyed the location, the author skillfully portrayed life in a place with limited options and the siren lure of drugs. A thoughtful exploration of who is responsible for the choices we make.

I always classify the books I review because I realize that people like to know what genre the book belongs to. I call The Distant Dead a "literary mystery" for the simple reason that it transcends the genre.

There are two main voices in this story: a middle school social studies teacher named Nora Wheaton, and Sal Prentiss, the lonely boy who found Adam Merkel's body as he was walking through the desert to the school bus stop. As we slowly begin to learn what really happened to Merkel, one show more thing becomes crystal clear: author Heather Young has created some rare and brilliant character studies. Why are they rare? Because they have you feel empathy for all the characters-- even the ones you don't like.

There's a reason why this small Nevada town is called Lovelock ("Lock your love in Lovelock!" as the billboard proclaims): all the people we come to know are locked in the town because of love, and that's not necessarily a good thing. Of them all, Nora Wheaton resonated the most with me, probably because we both have wanderlust and know what it's like to feel trapped: "...but when she saw the WELCOME TO IDAHO sign something inside her opened. She loved that they would go somewhere else the next summer, and the summer after that, every trip widening the world a little more."

The Distant Dead is a compelling mystery-- I had to know what really happened to Adam Merkel and what would happen to Nora and the young boy Sal-- but it's such a sad tale that I had to read it a bit at a time, letting one section be absorbed into my system before continuing to the next. But although my pace was slow, it was sure. This is a story that stuck with me even when I wasn't reading it. I kept finding myself thinking about the characters Young created, and I always returned to the book with the hope that, somehow, someway, things would go right. I highly recommend this sad, extraordinary tale. show less

This story is told in dual timelines by Lucy and her grand-niece, Justine, spanning five generations of one family. Lucy, her parents and her two sisters who lived in a vacation home on a remote Minnesota lake when the youngest sister, Emily, suddenly vanished in 1935, which remained an unsolved mystery. Before Lucy dies, she writes in her journal about a devastating secret that destroyed her family. Justine's older daughter uncovers the journal. This is a slow-moving novel that had me show more rooting for Justine as she navigated a difficult relationship and forged new connections in this haunting novel. show less