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BECOMING MARLOWE FIN
Ellen Won Steil
Lake Union Publishing
July 23, 2024
This book was listed as Women’s/General Fiction. I think suspense could be added to the genre. And, the title could be WHO IS MARLOWE FIN?
There are 2.5 timelines. One is the past, starting in the 1990s when a young girl discovers an abandoned 6-year-old in the woods. The second timeline is the present, in the format of an interview with Marlowe Fin, the child who was found and has become a famous model and actor. During the in-between, it seems that something tragic and horrific had occurred. The interview very slowly reveals the incident by the end of the book. Finally, there is a snippet of a timeline from the 1980s and a character that doesn’t seem to belong. This pops up a few times throughout the story. I had no idea of the significance.
There are a lot of unknowns in the story. I suspected that there were huge secrets too. The characters are enigmatic, especially the Mom of the family. Interesting, but hard to figure out. That fits in with the tone of the story. A favourite is Moni, the grandmother of the family. She has no agenda, she is a caregiver. She shows love to everyone. Marlowe seems to have some strange and disturbing characteristics. By the time I had read 50% of the story, I had no idea which way this story would turn. The journey is interesting. But I couldn’t guess.
It wasn’t too much later that I had an inkling of the upcoming twist. It turned out that I was partially right.
In summary, the plot line is good. But, I had problems towards the end of the book, when all the twists and turns were being worked out. The writing became somewhat disjointed, it didn’t flow as well as the first part of the book. And, there were too many pronouns being used, causing me confusion as to which character was involved in that moment. I had to re-read some sections to make sure I got it right. I found this frustrating.
I rate this 3.5 stars, rounded down.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.
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