Book Review – Shaking Out The Dead

Shaking Out The Dead by K. M. Cholewa – The story of three adults struggling with what it means to love and be loved.  Tatum is positive that she is unlovable, Paris wants to love her but spends too much time being “invisible” to believe it could happen.  Geneva is an older woman struggling with questions of love as her husband slowly dies with dementia.  Into the middle of their lives arrives eight year old Rachael, Tatum’s niece, who needs a safe harbor while her father struggles to find his balance after the death of Rachael’s mom.  Together they will struggle towards some kind of understanding of what love means.

Have you ever read a book that made you want to grab the characters and shake them until some tiny bit sense broke loose?  That’s how I feel about most of the main characters in this book.  Essentially they have all decided that they are unlovable.  Tatum is the most upfront about it.  No one can possibly love her because she is simply unbearable.  It’s a fabulous self fulfilling prophecy.  Paris and Lee, Rachael’s father, choose to recede as far into the shadow of someone or something as they can.  Believing they have nothing to offer allows them to take no action, make no claim on love.  Geneva over thinks everything and arrives at the not so novel concept that because she’s thought everything through she is responsible for everything around her.  Consequently she accepts her husband’s love while never believing in it.  All of them simply settle into the traps they have set for themselves with almost grateful resignation.  It just made me want to scream at them.  These people are their own worst enemies.

Because of that I had some difficulty getting going with this book.  My irritation with characters made me want to put the book down and walk away.

So I must have hated this book, right?

On the contrary.

“Shaking Out The Dead” is the product of an author in command of her tools.  Cholewa creates characters  with emotional depth to make you care about them.  Reading her work is effortless, the story flowing smoothly from beginning to end.  At the same time she will offer you choice moments of writing that are so wonderful that I went back to savor them again.  It takes a skilled storyteller to create characters so true within their flaws, place them in an authentic context and then weave a compelling tale.  I have no doubt that many readers will find the characters far more compelling than irritating.  I can tell you this – the story will carry you along to a destination you will not expect.  The writing is accomplished and the storytelling evocative.

No matter how you may feel about the characters themselves “Shaking Out The Dead” is worth your time.
It will hit the shelves June 24, 2014.

Rating – **** Recommended