Beware past secrets
NEVER HAVE I EVER by Joshilyn Jackson (Raven Books, $40)
On a recent spur-of-the-moment day trip out of town, I randomly ran into two people who briefly played bit parts in my life at different times. Why do I mention this? Because I had to remind myself when my credulity was being stretched while reading Never Have I Ever that — especially in this land of one degree of separation — it is possible for our lives to randomly intertwine and reconnect in mysterious ways.
For Amy Whey, these interconnections have tied her up in a suffocating web that puts her very existence at risk. Amy is a housewife living a smug middle-class life in a neighbourhood brimming with others just like her. Then one night the attractive Angelica Roux shows up at the neighbourhood’s book club. It doesn’t take too many scratches of her manicured fingernails to dig beneath the surface of the smug to the festering secrets, lies and betrayals that, of course, lie beneath.
Things escalate quickly as the drunken book club gets out of hand and the intensely manipulative Roux launches her evil game of “never have I ever”. It doesn’t take too long to realise that she knows the secrets these women have buried. And so the catand-mouse game of blackmail and threats begins.
A shocking teenage mistake suddenly puts Amy’s comfortable new life at risk: what would her devoted university professor husband, her carefully nurtured teenage stepdaughter, her similarly minded friends — not to mention her adorable infant son — think if they knew what she had done all those years ago?
Amy has to step out of her comfortable life in suburban Florida and fight Roux at her own game. Despite everything she stands to lose, Amy gets a measure of satisfaction from the shake-up that her hitherto mundane life of nappies and baking her life — and the plotting she must do to keep it.
There was a hint of the contrived in the scuba diving subplot — it’s a pasttime the author enjoys — even as her role as dive instructor adds depth — so to speak — to the character of Amy.
Never Have I Ever is many steps above your average psychological thriller. Its layers and subplots lead you down a new path every couple of chapters or so and is almost knocking on the door of gaining the label of “literary”. While not trying to turn what is an engaging read into a feminist treatise, it is extra satisfying that all the main characters — goodies and baddies — are female and drawn with depth and realism. Males largely fill the supporting roles, although it is no spoiler to let you know that Joshilyn Jackson does have a big surprise waiting for you.
Never Have I Ever is Jackson’s ninth book and her writing is confident and comfortable. She is a trustworthy guide as she leads us through Amy’s struggles to keep the life she has so carefully built safe from Roux’s relentless onslaught. I’m now keen to discover Jackson’s other books.