Joy Moody Is Out of Time by Kerryn Mayne: REVIEW
Synopsis
Joy Moody has been lying to her twin daughters their whole lives. She was only trying to protect them at first, and she intended to tell them the truth eventually. But now she’s suffering from an illness that’s blurring the lines between what’s real and what’s her own web of lies. All she knows for sure is, on the day of the girls’ 21st birthday, everything will change.
My Review
First of all, I don’t say this very often, but it was the cover art that drew me to this book. Absolutely masterful. The pink laundromat is the setting of the story, and the neon sign of the title with “TIME” blacked out makes the whole thing beautifully symbolic. I wish more book covers were this unique and inventive!
As for the story… I’m not sure how to talk about it without spoilers, but I LOVED it. If you’ve been following my reviews for a while, you know I love a good unreliable narrator, and this book is full of them. Joy is unable to distinguish reality from fiction, and her daughters Cassie and Andie have grown up sheltered under Joy’s lies and have no idea what reality even is. I’m sure that setup won’t appeal to everyone, but a story like that is catnip to me. Kerryn Mayne does an excellent job of controlling that chaos and allowing the truth to unfold layer by layer.
The characters are also really well drawn. I felt very attached to Joy, despite her major flaws, and especially to the two girls, despite their naivety. There are also several other characters floating around them – neighbours, Joy’s brother Grant, a detective, etc. – who at first struck me as stereotypes or one-layered caricatures, but who become more complex as the unreliable narrators get to know them better.
Minor nitpicks
If I’m going to criticize anything about this book, it would be the pacing and parts of the ending. I’ve seen a few reviews that complain about the pacing, and I did question the author’s choices a couple of times. However, it’s a pretty quick read, so I wouldn’t say it’s a huge problem. Just know that it does start to drag now and then, where it rewinds to tell us some backstory or another angle of the same event.
As for the ending… I liked the ending, but I felt it leaned too heavily towards saccharine at times. Just some of the dialogue choices and stuff, nothing major. It didn’t bother me enough to take away that 5-star feeling I’d had for the rest of the book.
Conclusion
This is a great read! I highly recommend it if you enjoy unreliable narrators and twisty-turny plots. It’s a great study of mental illness, too, and unusual mother-daughter relationships.
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing this ARC for review consideration.
Today (August 19) is publication day, so you can buy Joy Moody Is Out of Time here on Bookshop.org* or look for it wherever you buy books.
*As an affiliate, I’ll receive a small commission from any purchase made through this link. No extra cost to you, just helping me pay the blog bills!