Published by Riverhead Books on May 18, 2021
Genres/Lists: Fiction
Pages: 352
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When Chrissie was 8, she killed a little boy. Twenty years later, she’s a mom trying to do what’s best for her daughter. But how do you forgive yourself for something so awful? Or are some acts so terrible that there’s no coming back? Do the standards for redemption change if you killed someone as a child, rather than adult?
You had to hurt people when they annoyed you, to teach them a lesson.
Equal parts disturbing and heartbreaking, The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker is told through alternating points of view. The first offers an insight into Chrissie’s mind as a child, when she is so hungry – for food, scraps of attention, you name it – that she lives her life trying to fill that need. The theme of hunger fits so perfectly in this novel, but after reading the author’s bio, I know that it is also personal for her. Her first book, The Time In Between, is about her own experience with an eating disorder. Authors often inject personal experiences into their novels, but rarely is it done so seamlessly.
The second point of view is adult Chrissie, who is constantly questioning both her ability and her right to be a mother as she struggles with who she knows herself to be and the mom she wants to become. But it’s hard to shake the past and forge a new life, which Chrissie knows all too well. Every time she thinks she gets to start again, the past catches up to her.
This one was tough to read but it was so worth it. @NancyCNTucker did a great job striking a balance between horror & sympathy for the main character, so check it out. Click To TweetIt’s a difficult balance to create both sympathy and horror for a character, especially a child, but Tucker manages to do both. This makes sense because she has a degree in Experimental Psychology and has worked with children at an inpatient psychiatric unit, where she may have witnessed firsthand the impacts of the circumstances Chrissie faced. There are times when I had so much sympathy for her that I forgot what she had done, only to be pulled back to reality and wonder how I could forget such a thing.
If you’re looking for a book that you will race through but will also leave you pondering about the impact of neglect and the possibility of redemption, then pick this one up.
Recommended for: Readers interested in stories that are equal parts disturbing and and heartbreaking, yet interwoven with a little bit of hope.