Karolina Waclawiak

This was our script, and it soon spiraled into familiar territory, which ended in his sleeping on the couch and my staring at the ceiling alone in our bedroom. My first instinct was usually to fix, to make him happy, to take it back, and also to berate myself quietly for being a broken person who could not be a productive part of a unit. But this time I didn't do any of those things.

Evelyn is newly unemployed and her marriage is dying. She spends her free time on-line, reading articles and show more message boards about grief. She also trains to be a grief counselor, helping people and their loved ones through assisted suicide. She's not sure why she feels compelled to pre-grieve when she's never had a family member die. As she drives around greater Los Angeles, learning to help people die and remembering events from her marriage and her childhood, she feels like she's just drifting, but really she's moving forward.

This is a thoughtful, quiet novel that seems to be spinning its wheels for much of the novel, until all the pieces fall into place. Evelyn seems like she's going to start careening from disaster to disaster, when what's happening is that she's figuring out how to live. This novel snuck up on me, taking its time before pulling me entirely into Evelyn's world. show less

Everyone's drowning here, and not just because it's a pretty and exclusive little beach town on the Long Island Sound in Connecticut. The women are overcome by Botox, the men are overwhelmed by adultery opportunities, and the kids are reveling in privilege: "I had a leg up and that made it easier to slack off." The story of a sad summer season is told alternately by Teddy and his stepmother Cheryl. Teddy's mother killed herself with drink and a plunge into the ocean, understandable as show more Teddy's father Jeffrey reveals his contempt for his second wife and his overindulgent disregard for his son.

The doings at the country club, including fencing off the sailboats from the younger members in order to keep out non-resident fishermen and their families, are repulsive. The big storm coming is almost a relief.

This is probably an accurate picture of 1% territory, but it ain't pretty. show less

Do not be deceived by the happy pool and float toys on the cover of Karolina Waclawiak's "The Invaders" -- this is no mindless beach read. Waclawiak has delivered an honest, scathing (and depressing) look at class, status, and race in wealthy Connecticut beach town -- a town "far away enough from New York to feel like we were in a different world, but close enough to have successful commuter husbands."

The story has two narrators: Cheryl and Teddy.

40-something Cheryl, Jeffrey's second wife, show more is losing her "trophy wife" status as she ages. She doesn't come from the right kind of background to have ever made a connection with any of the country-club wives, and her own family has written her off as a phony. Her husband is mostly absent -- physically and emotionally -- and having always relied on her appearance, she doesn't know what to do: "We were now transitioning between desirable and undesirable -- that sad moment when a woman realized that absolutely no man is looking at her, not even a passing glance. It made us all paralyzed with fear."

Jeffrey's son, Teddy, has led a life of absolute privilege and knows this privilege earns him the right to coast: "I had a leg up and that made it easier to slack off. I didn't have to work at the feverish pace that new guys worked when they came from nothing. I knew I was lucky. When my father used to take me to his office, I could pick them out. They worked like it meant something and never took vacations. They were trying to surpass their numbers...The guys like me, who came from where I come from, had a little bit of a wrinkle in their shirts, and sometimes decided Top-Siders counted as proper office attire. Those were my people." When we meet him he's strung out on drugs and has just gotten kicked out of Dartmouth. No matter, his father is getting him hooked up with a job.

Everything continues its downhill spiral in "The Invaders" as the people in the neighborhood decide to build a fence around the beach after a few Latino fishermen are seen fishing on the rocks; an attack in the woods leaves the neighborhood frightened; and a hurricane threatens the coast.

Thank you to NetGalley and Regan Arts for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review. show less

The Short of It:

No calm water here. This beach-front community is on the verge of ruin and the frenetic energy of its characters comes bursting out in strange and unusual ways.

The Rest of It:

The story revolves around the inhabitants of a country-club community located along the Connecticut shoreline. Beach-front properties, club houses, sparkling pools filled with forty-something-year-old women trying to look good for anyone who will look at them, and the disgusting tourists that force show more themselves upon the beach with their dirty little dogs and whiny kids. Yes, it’s a story of US versus THEM and although it’s a little strange to follow, it’s just so juicy to read.

The story is told in alternating points of view between Cheryl and her adult stepson, Teddy. Cheryl is married to Teddy’s father Jeffrey. Cheryl is Jeffrey’s second wife. Although she was a trophy wife when she first moved in, ten years has aged her and her relationship with Jeffrey is hardly a relationship at all. With him gone all the time for work, Cheryl spends her days gardening, taking long walks and paying far too much attention to what is going on in the so-called community.

Teddy, is Cheryl’s adult stepson who returns home after getting booted out of college. He’s hooked on painkillers, sex and seems intent on making poor choices but there’s a sadness to Teddy that you can’t ignore and when he and Cheryl begin to fall apart at the same time but in totally different ways, it’s impossible to know what will happen.

The Invaders puts you right in the middle of the story. I could smell the sea air, hear the water splashing and feel the tension of that tight-knit community along with all of its airs and affluence and yes, sadness. There is much sadness in-between these pages. There’s also, a rawness to the story that leaves you a little off kilter.

It’s hard to like anyone in this novel. Everyone is stripped down and flayed bare but the complexities between the characters and the struggles they have within their own lives is what makes them so interesting.

I’ve never read a book that I liked and hated as much as this one. I’d flip a page and hate it and then I’d read a paragraph and love it again. I kept going back and forth like that throughout the entire book! In the end, I think I’m safe in saying that it impressed me but that ending! Boy!

This book may have a beach setting but it’s not a lighthearted read. It’s filled with desperate people who really just want to be loved. It’s dreadful but at the same time, so good.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. show less