Review 190: The Center of Everything

The Center of Everything by Jamie Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a complicated book, and the writing style doesn’t help matters. I found it very confusing in the first portion, trying to figure out who were all these characters. People are introduced as if you know who they are right away.

The world is of Polly. She had a concussion months ago, but is still recovering from her injury, sometimes she drifts off, sees things, Polly is consumed by memories of her past. Many of these memories her mother Jane claim are not something Polly would remember but made up from photographs and stories the family told.

This brings us from present 2002 to the past in 1968 when Polly was 8 and it was a significant time in her life. Both settings are in the same family home in Montana. As the past comes forward, and there is another death of significance, a family friend, a young girl who went missing after a day on the river with a group of friends.

The book is very rich with details and imagery. The world is fully developed, and one can see all that is contained, once you get further into the story and settled into the setting. There are loose threads throughout the book that slowly tie together in the end. This is one book where the ending makes up for the difficulties in the beginning.

Thanks to Counterpoint Press and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.