I recently finished reading an ARC of The Palisades by Gail Lynn Hanson. This book will be available on Kindle on October 24. I’m not sure when the paperback version will be released. There are two main characters, Dorothy and Ruth. Both are a bit delusional. Dorothy, who grew up in the Midwest, moved to Hollywood as a young adult. She’s now in her 80s, and she believes that she’s great friends with many of the big Hollywood stars. She’s obsessed with Angela Landsbury, Judy Garland, and others. Ruth, who was raised in foster care and who is now in her 60s, imagines life a bit differently than it really happened. She feels that she’s entitled to things that aren’t legally hers. That’s about the best way to explain it without ruining the plot.
Confused in a Good Way
This book is really like nothing I’ve ever read before. I mean that in a good way. Usually, I like books that give me closure, even if that means ending on a sad note. This book leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions, but I was surprisingly alright with that. There were a lot of “Wait, did she…” moments throughout this book. Along with that, both of our main characters deal with distorted realities. While there are things I know are true and things I know weren’t true, even as I finished the book, I wasn’t entirely sure about a few things, which is kind of the appeal of this book.
Creepy and Disturbing at Times
It’s creepy, and it’s disturbing in so many ways. Both of our main characters dealt with horrible abuse as children. Some of this might be disturbing to readers. Because of events from their childhoods, neither Dorothy nor Ruth is sane. You might find yourself wondering, “Just how delusional are they?” If you are the sort of reader who has to have clear “good” and “bad” characters, I wouldn’t recommend reading this book. There’s definitely some grey area. Both Dorothy and Ruth do some pretty terrible things, some of them potentially justified.
Warnings to Readers
When thinking back on the book, there really isn’t a lot of swearing or other offensive language, which was really nice. I hesitate to say for sure that there’s absolutely no swearing (there might be a few words), but I honestly don’t remember any swearing.
Yet, this book has quite a few subject matters that might be hard for some readers to handle. When it comes to sexual content, there aren’t any graphic sex scenes. Teen pregnancy as the result of rape would likely be the most difficult subject matter for readers when it comes to sexual content.
Death is a major theme throughout this book. This includes one person who committed suicide previously. It also includes murder, mostly as either a “mercy killing” or as revenge. There are also a few “accidental” deaths. At least one of them I did wonder if it really was an accident.
Child abuse, bullying, child abandonment, manipulation, and using religion to justify their actions are some other topics that might be difficult for some readers to handle. The best way that I can explain some of this is that while the author doesn’t go into a huge amount of graphic detail, there are enough details given that the reader can conjure up their own disturbing image of what has happened.
Disturbing But Enjoyable?
I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this book. I thought at first that it might get a bit too dark and/or graphic. While there are places that I cringed and was quite disturbed by some of the characters’ actions, I feel like the author did a great job of not crossing the line between a disturbing story that draws me in, leaving me wanting to read more, and one that became so disturbing that I don’t want to finish it. I will say that this is a book that is going to stay with you even after you finish reading it.
