Can't-Wait Wednesday: Dearest by Jacquie Walters & Entitlement by Rumaan Alam

   

Can't-Wait is a weekly meme hosted by Wishful Endings that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released! This meme is based off of Jill @ Breaking the Spine's Waiting on Wednesday meme.

Dearest by Jacquie Walters
Publication: September 17th, 2024
Mulholland Books
Hardcover. 304 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A new mom in need of help opens her door to her long-estranged mother—only to invite something much darker inside—in this "fast-paced and frightening debut" (Rachel Harrison) about the long shadows cast by family secrets, perfect for readers of Grady Hendrix or Ashley Audrain.

Flora is a new mom enamored of her baby girl, Iris, even if she arrived a few weeks early. With her husband still deployed, Flora navigates the newborn stage alone. But as the sleepless nights pass in the loneliness of their half-empty home, the edges of her reality begin to blur.

Just as Flora becomes convinced she is losing her mind, a surprising guest shows up: Flora’s own mother, to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. Can they mend their fraught relationship? Or is there more Flora’s mother isn’t telling her about the events that led to their estrangement?

As stranger and scarier events unfold, Flora begins to suspect the house is not as empty as she once thought. She must determine: is her hold on reality slipping dangerously away? Or is she, in fact, the only thing standing between a terrifying visitor and her baby?"

A lot of mother-related themes going on lately, but I'm really curious about this one!

Entitlement by Rumaan Alam
Publication: September 17th, 2024
Riverhead Books
Hardcover. 288 pages.
Pre-order: Amazon | Bookshop.org

From Goodreads:
"A novel of money and morality from the New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind

Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?

Taut, unsettling, and alive to the seductive distortions of money, Entitlement is a riveting tale for our new gilded age, a story that confidently considers questions about need and worth, race and privilege, philanthropy and generosity, passion and obsession. It is a provocative, propulsive novel about the American imagination."

Leave the World Behind was very hit or miss for a lot of readers, but it's one I ended up really liking, so I'm very excited to try out his latest release!

Mini-Review: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication: November 12th, 2022

Hardcover. 256 pages.

About Leave the World Behind:

"A magnetic novel about two families, strangers to each other, who are forced together on a long weekend gone terribly wrong 

Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they’ve rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it’s their house, and they’ve arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it’s hard to know what to believe. 

Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?"

When Amanda, Clay, and their two children embark on a short family getaway, they hope to have a nice time to reconnect and relax. Unfortunately, as tends to happen to plans with the best intentions, things do not go according to plan and the owners of the house they are renting for the trip show up unannounced–and the reason why only creates more problems. Leave the World Behind is a slow-paced, creeping sort of thriller that builds up much of its dread-induced atmosphere through the writing and small actions of the characters that leave you feeling uneasy. This is not an overt horror or fast-paced thriller, but rather one of those leaves you feeling unsettled without really knowing exactly why, and also relies on poking at your imagination to make things more ominous. 

What I liked: This is not an overt horror or fast-paced thriller, but rather one of those that leaves you feeling unsettled without really knowing exactly why and also relies on poking at your imagination to make things more ominous. This narrative style worked perfectly for this book and had me absolutely captivated. I think a lot of the criticisms of this book are a result of misleading marketing where readers may have expected something a bit more “page-turning” and exciting, when in reality it’s only page-turning if you find yourself invested in this manner of storytelling. Nothing major really happens for a lot of this book, but the implications and actions and thoughts of the characters are what made it so compelling and ominous for me and I just loved it. I don't think this will be for everyone (and based on reviews, it's clearly not!), but if you click with it I think you'll really love it as well. 

 
What I didn't like: As much as I enjoyed how the writing built up the tension in the plot and between characters, I can easily admit that this book is a tad overwritten at times. The prose borders on being too 'purple' at times and inputs some odd, heavy-handed word choices that sort of stick out as the author trying to sound a bit too deep or dramatic. Perhaps this is meant to reflect the characters, but I'm not sure it worked. Similarly, there's a weird oversexualization of characters and actions at times, and some questionable sex-related things in general, such as a grown woman having weirdly sexual thoughts about a grocery bag boy who may be a teenager. There were definitely some weird writing choices in this book that threw me out of it every once in a while. 

 

Overall, I ended up giving Leave the World Behind 4.5 stars! Despite my quibbles with the writing, I actually enjoyed this book way too much to give it something lower. It's not a book for everyone, but if it sounds interesting to you, I'd recommend you give it shot–but maybe get it from your library first, just in case. 

Buy the book: Amazon | Bookshop.org