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BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME
Jacqueline Bublitz
Atria Books
November 1, 2022
320 pages
This is the story about Ruby and Alice. They both arrive in New York City on the same day. Ruby comes from Australia. Alice comes from Wisconsin. But, they never actually meet each other. Alice is murdered after a month in the city, Ruby discovers her body. Ruby becomes obsessed with tracking down the identity of Alice and finding out who the murderer is. The whole book is narrated by Alice after she has died.
It’s a very different style of telling a story. There is a lot of narrative as opposed to action or dialogue. The descriptive passages were beautiful but sometimes a little too wordy for me. Because the book description tells us what is going to happen, I was anxious to get to the nitty gritty. We live in an age of instant gratification!
But, at times the story is uncomfortable. At other times it became too philosophical for me. And at times the story didn’t seem to be advancing. I found myself pushing to get through parts of it.
I learn about Cotard’s Syndrome. That’s knowledge that I don’t really think I need. But it fits in with the dark theme of the story.
There are very relevant points in the story. “Missing White Woman Syndrome” is the most prominent. Quite self explanatory – murdered or missing white women get a lot more media coverage than a woman of colour.
The book ended up with a bang. Everything comes together as it should. There are many introspective passages. Alice’s soul finds peace. I truly wish that 80% of the book had been as satisfying as the last 20%. I have read other reviews. I know I am in the minority. I wish I could have liked it as much as the others.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an Advance Readers Copy
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