Description
Novel
Written by Elizabeth Searle
Tensions run high in a blended Bostonian family as Sarah Stratidakis goes into labor with her first child. Enduring an tortuously long birth, Sarah is haunted by past events, including the recent Boston Marathon Bombing, the perpetrator of which bears a striking resemblance to her erratic and estranged stepson who has only just returned home.
“Elizabeth Searle’s We Got Him is an ingeniously plotted, suspenseful novel written in blood, mother’s milk, and the unintended consequence of rage. It is the story of one family’s inherited flaws, harbored guilts, and obsessive desires, whether for a child, a parent, or a second chance to do the elusive right thing. Powerfully worked against the unfolding evens of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Elizabeth Searle’s taut drama of a young, pregnant stepmorther and her troubled stepson is a narrative tour de force, interweaving public and private acts of terror with the redemptive, but ever-fragile, forces of love.” –Melissa Pritchard, author of Palmerino and A Solemn Pleasure.
Naomi Richter –
The writer does an excellent job getting into the heads of each member of the Stratidakis family during the chaotic events in the novel. This book isn’t about the Boston Marathon Bombing so much an it uses the event as the backdrop to a suspenseful fictional family drama. The writing is compelling, with something of a central mystery concerning past events between two characters that is revealed piece by piece throughout the book. Flashbacks, between each chapter fill in details of the present and are arranged in a very seamlessly organized way. This book left me with many lasting impressions, from the unhinged behavior of the somewhat crazy stepson character PJ, to the excruciatingly detailed scene of birth so powerful it makes me never want to have children. (I joke.) A very enjoyable read.