See the crack on the cover? Uh huh - earthquake time in Los Angeles. Single mom Dessa is on a rare night out with her friends, having left her young daughter with a new babysitter. Beegie is a foster home runaway who is headed back as she has nowhere and no one else.
Now, I have no experience with earthquakes other than the news. But Foley's descriptions were terrifying. Even more disquieting is the behaviour of those who see this disaster as a chance to loot - and worse. (Gentle readers take not that there are more than a few triggering situations in Just Get Home.) "The earthquake isn't the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after."
Initially the two characters are each on their own. Their paths cross more than once and they end up travelling the same way together. It is the action and danger that propels the book forward at a breakneck speed, but Foley has also developed her characters. Dessa loves her daughter Oliva to the moon and back, but she is struggling mentally and financially. Beegie's story broke my heart - "Because if you care about something it has power over you. Caring can give someone else the ability to control you and the only real way to own yourself was to let go."
Their journey is fraught with danger at every turn. I (barely) resisted the urge to flip ahead in the book to see if things worked out the way I wanted. Just Get Home reads like an action movie - and I can absolutely see it on the big screen. Five stars as I couldn't put it down.
If you read it in a day, that means it has to go on my list! I'm at the lake cabin for a few days, so I have plenty of time to catch up on some reading and reviewing. First on my list is the latest Davenport/Flowers novel, but I'll definitely try to get to this one too!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to your thoughts Ethan. It reads like a movie - a dark movie...
ReplyDelete