TITLE: TURN OF MIND
AUTHOR: ALICE LAPLANTE
Pages: 305
Date: 26/10/2011
Grade: 5
Library
Amanda O’Toole has been killed, and after she died four of her fingers
were surgically removed by someone who obviously knew what they were doing.
The police investigating the killing are convinced that Jennifer White
has killed Amanda, who was her neighbour and best friend.
Jennifer White is a retired orthopaedic surgeon who used to specialise
in hands. And Jennifer has Alzheimer’s, which makes her a very unreliable suspect
and almost impossible to interrogate.
As her Alzheimer’s gets steadily worse, Jennifer moves backwards and
forwards through her memories throwing light on her life, her marriage her
children and her, at times volatile, relationship with Amanda.
Did she kill and/or mutilate Amanda? Even Jennifer isn’t sure about the
answer to that question, and when the solution to the mystery is revealed to
her, all we know for sure is that she won’t be able to remember it.
This was a chilling read on several levels.
There is of course Amanda’s death and what was done to her afterwards,
which in and off itself would be scary enough. But in many ways, for me, that
was the least chilling part of the story.
The relationships in the book affected me more. The relationships
between Jennifer and those around her, her deceased husband, her children and
her friend Amanda all seemed to have dark aspects. Jealousies, rivalries and
power struggles seemed to be below (and at times in the forefront of) a lot of
her interactions with others.
However, by far the most chilling aspect of this book was the disease,
Alzheimer’s.
This has been the second book I read about a person slowly losing
herself to Alzheimer’s. And as I did when I read Still Alice by Lisa Genova I
found myself scared by the disease and by what it does to the person suffering
from it and those who have to watch the slow but unrelentless deterioration.
This is a very well written book. I could picture Jennifer, and although
I didn’t like her very much, I was able to feel and understand her despair and
anger.
Alice LaPlante made Jennifer’s shrinking world very real for me which
means that this is a story that will stay with me for a long time.
I’m not sure what other people will make of this review. While my rating
shows that I think this is a good book, I can’t help feeling that what I’ve
written about it could well put people of reading it. I hope that isn’t the
case though, since this is an original and fascinating, if at times disturbing,
read.
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