THE EMPTY NEST

3 stars out of 5

Whew! A more annoying, insufferable woman I've never encountered in a book. She's a mom who refuses to let go even though she's choking the life out of not only the daughter who left the nest for college, but everyone else around her. To that daughter, who chose a school a hundred miles or so from home, I scream, "Run, child - run like the wind. Go to Canada. To Australia. To the ends of the earth." Anywhere to get away from this hysterical woman who takes what I call "smothering mothering" to a whole new level.

In the interests of full disclosure, though, I must admit that it's virtually impossible for me to identify with Kat, mother to her "perfect" and only child Amy. When our firstborn left home for college just an hour away, my husband and I had repurposed his room before his car even left our driveway. Still, I gave Kat my best shot; but when I got to the near halfway point with nothing much happening except her incessant questioning and hand-wringing, I came close to giving up.

But I stuck with it, and I'm happy to say the story started to come alive in the second half. Not long after Amy got to college in Wales, she disappears; and because she and Kat are joined at the hip - as close to literally as humanly possible - Kat, who's already three-quarters bonkers at not seeing or hearing from Amy every single minute, goes off the deep end. Something awful has happened, Kat declares minutes after Amy's 20th text of the day is overdue. As the hours go by with no trace of Amy, just about everyone who ever knew her becomes a suspect, from her college roommates to her wayward birth father Tony to Richard, Kat's current husband and Amy's stepfather for most of her life.

After the first couple of agonizing days, it becomes clear that yes, something really has happened to Amy. For the most part, that only leads to even more hand-wringing and woeful discussions among Kat, her best friend Zoe and Zoe's daughter Jodie, who was Amy's best friend. But slowly, a different picture emerges: First and foremost, that all these characters may not be who they seem. Kat, for instance, has dark secrets all her own, mostly related to her ex-husband. As the story nears the end, secrets of those other characters are revealed, leading to a somewhat surprising conclusion that, given my intense dislike of Kat, I must say gave me enormous pleasure.

Overall, it's an emotional roller-coaster with Kat in the lead car every page of the way. Although it (she) isn't quite my cup of tea, it's definitely worth reading and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review it.

The Empty Nest by Sue Watson (Bookouture, November 2019); 213 pp.