Review: Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose (audio)
tells you everything you need to know in the title
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose, narrated by January LaVoy, Cassandra Campbell, Brittany Pressley, and Andrew Eiden, is considered a mystery and thriller, but I didn’t find it that thrilling/mysterious given the title tells you all you need to know. Beth, Nicole, and Michael return to their rural Wisconsin hometown after the death of their mother to deal with her funeral and estate. These estranged siblings haven’t spoken in many years, and their relationship is clearly more than fragmented.
Michael is the one who did well and moved to California, and he is by many definitions a success. Nicole is the messed up, drug-addicted sibling and middle child, while Beth is the oldest, responsible child who never left home and cared for their dying mother. Oh, and their father ran out on the family seven years ago. The secrets these siblings uncover while sifting through the past would be enough to destroy any family.
The fracturing began around 1999, the partial cause of which is discovered on a VHS tape. This discovery sets in motion an investigation into the past and the cold case of a missing neighborhood girl.
I won’t go into too many details about the plot here, but Rose’s characters are by turns interesting and lack nuance. Beth is probably the most dynamic, while Nicole seems like a cliche and Michael is kept vague enough that he could be any random kid in the neighborhood and not their sibling. The age differences here are not clear, though we know who is oldest, middle, and youngest because we are told. I would have preferred their interactions to reveal their ages. For example, Beth remembering things that Michael never knew because he was youngest, etc.
Beyond the characterizations, it seems that the four points of view in this novel are meant to distract the reader and diverge from the main story. I would have preferred Nicole and Michael’s stories in the background — they were more like secondary characters than main players. Beth and the mother’s POVs would have been the best ones to immerse the reader in because they would raise the most questions and discussion about how far is too far in protecting your own child?
Home Is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose is a mystery with a predictable ending, at least for me, but the journey was kind of interesting if you focus on Beth and the mother’s POVs. These are the characters you grow to care about and have an investment in their growth.
RATING: Tercet
About the Author:
Jeneva Rose is the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Marriage, One of Us is Dead, The Girl I Was, You Shouldn’t Have Come Here & Home is Where the Bodies Are. Her work has been translated into more than two dozen languages and optioned for film/tv. Originally from Wisconsin, she currently lives in Chicago with her husband, Drew, and her English bulldog, Winston. Photo Credit: Katharine Hannah
I was really hoping you’d love this one. I’m intrigued by the title.