ISBN: 9780312357504
Australian Release Date: 2010-01-21Publisher: ST MARTINS PRESS
Country of origin: USA
An amazing ride through disturbingly familiar waters.
Will Sullivan is destined for big things in US politics. With family history behind him and a perfect wife and daughter beside him, becoming Governor of Massachusetts is only the first step on the long road to a big white house.
But when his daughter is diagnosed with an inoperable tumour, his world is turned upside down and inside out. Sokoloff pulls back the brambles and lets us slide into a rabbit hole not many would want to examine closely.
The story is complex with little bits of information paying off much later in the tale, and not usually in a blatant manner. You’ll read a few pages and stop, go back, and then the penny will drop in one of those moments authors dream about creating in a reader—except this happens a lot in this book. And yet the prose is easy to read, the pace rarely allowing a chance to take a breath. Many authors worry if the second book will live up to the hype created by the their debut—this novel doesn't begin as darkly as her first, but it surpasses its ability to disturb the most seasoned dark fiction reader.
Sokoloff’s theatrical and screenwriting ability is also on show with her transporting visuals and grasp of suspense. It is not difficult to see this as movie told in words and even less difficult to visualise the settings she weaves with an amazing deftness of touch.
The Price leads you into a very identifiable situation, something many parents fear, and other adults can empathise with, and slowly twists things to a supernatural bent that quickens the pulse. It makes you guess at what the author has in mind. When you think you have it straight, it goes in another direction, only to twist back on you and leave you doubting your own reasoning ability. The suspense is played out to leave the nerves quite raw and the emotions palpable. If you’re not in Will Sullivan’s cheer squad by the halfway mark, you’re probably not altogether human.
His five-year-old daughter is the typical, and somewhat clichéd, terminally ill child with an overly sharp mind and an amazing sense of occasion which escapes way too many adults in the real world, but seems adorable when viewed on the Hallmark channel. Taken with a grain of salt and knowledge of Sokoloff’s background, it’s obviously written for a screen performance and works as such, but it is a little sickly sweet at times.
The stunningly beautiful wife, abused in her childhood and now fiercely protective of the love surrounding her, a love she never thought she’d have in her life, is also a little formulaic for most of the story, but the way Sokoloff plays out the scenarios involving a mother’s love and determination in the face of supreme adversity is stark and emotionally powerful. The inner strength depicted is truly awe inspiring.
But Will carries the story, along with his battle against an evil nobody wants to face. The antagonist is rarely seen but ever present and this only adds to the tension building throughout. And the ending will leave you full of dread, not only for Will and his girls, but for all of mankind.
Highly recommended.
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