BOOKISH FRIDAY: “THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE ME”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What better way to spend a Friday!

Today’s spotlight is shining on a book that has been hiding on Pippa since August 2014:  The Next Time You See Me, by Holly Goddard Jones.

 

 

Beginning:  Emily Houchens watched as Christopher Shelton, who sat in a desk two rows up and one over from her own, leaned back and smoothly slid his notebook over his shoulder, so that the boy sitting behind him could read what was written there.  This second boy, Monty, began to quake with suppressed laughter.  The notebook retracted; an open hand took its place, waiting expectantly, and Monty softly gave him five:  Good one.

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56:  Nancy’s was a dance hall.  It was a Quonset hut the size of a roller rink and similar to a roller rink in design:  The dance floor was a broad oblong of polished oak with a DJ’s station positioned right in the center.  To the right of the dance floor was a long bar and two levels of seating, floor and deck, and this was where you could usually find a decent crowd of drinkers on Fridays and Saturdays, sometimes hundreds of them, their cigarette smoke curling toward the ceiling where it hung, trapped, like a storm cloud.

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Synopsis:  Hailed as “an astoundingly good novel” by Gillian Flynn, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Gone Girl, and winner of the 2014 Kentucky Literary Award, The Next Time You See Me is a gripping tale of mystery, desperation, and redemption.

When a small Southern town’s most fiery single woman is found dead in the woods, it’s not just her secrets that threaten to surface. There’s Ronnie’s sister, Susanna, a dutiful but dissatisfied schoolteacher, mother, and wife; Tony, a failed baseball star turned detective; Emily, a socially awkward thirteen-year-old with a dark secret; and Wyatt, a factory worker tormented by a past he can’t change and by a love he doesn’t think he deserves.

Connected in ways they cannot begin to imagine, their stories converge in a violent climax that reveals not just the mystery of what happened to Ronnie, but all of their secret selves. Praised as “immensely satisfying and skillful” by Kate Atkinson, author of New York Times bestseller Life After Life, The Next Time You See Me is a debut novel not to be missed.

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What do you think?  Should I bring this one out of hiding and keep reading?

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