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July 4, 2007 11:19 AM

BOOK REVIEW: Be Mine by Laura Kasischke

Be Mine, the debut novel by poet Laura Kasischke, is a tricky one to review. For the first 150 or so pages I didn't think I'd be able to finish it - not only did it drag, but it was also chock-full of pretentious and rather amateurish symbolism. I lost count of the blood, the rose petals, and the numerous dead animals (seriously, there were rabbits, squirrels, deer, birds and more). But once I got further on in the book, I found that I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day.

"Be Mine" is what's written on a note left in teacher Sherry Seymour's locker on Valentine's Day. She has no idea who it's from, but when the first note is followed by other, more verbose, messages, she starts asking around. She knows it's not her husband of 20 years and he seems as intrigued by the notes as she is. When she bumps into a former friend of her son (who has recently left home to attend college on the other side of the country), she invites him for dinner and he suggests the notes' author may be Bram Smith, the school's sexy auto teacher.

Both Sherry and her husband are excited by this idea and, with her husband's encouragement, Sherry embarks on an affair with Smith. And then, inevitably, things go horribly wrong.

As I said, I was absolutely gripped by Be Mine. I found it well-written (mostly), thrilling, thought-provoking, exciting and erotic, but at the same time there were a number of plot twists that I totally didn't buy at all (the kind of thing that would have had me throwing other books across the room).

Think of it as a film that doesn't really hold together, but is diverting and entertaining all the same.

Rating: 3/5 (2 for the symbolism and plotting + 4 for the excitement and writing = 3!)

Like this? Try Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

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Posted by Keris on July 4, 2007 in American Authors, Crime / Mystery, Debut Novels, New Releases, Rating: 3/5 | Permalink

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