I loved the title of this book. And based on the “back cover” (kindle book so, you know, no back cover) I thought it was going to be really interesting. William and Maggie Scripps, brother and sister, are both working in the United States to help with the war effort during WWII. Will secretly working on the Manhattan Project and Maggie at the shipyard. But one night they find a young woman, passed out, near death outside of their home.
Sounds good, right? And the title makes you think maybe Ruby Fielding is gonna die (or is that just me?) Anyway. It was decent up to a point and I can’t tell you when that point was because after having finished the book and finding myself absolutely dissatisfied with it, I can’t pinpoint where it lost my favor. (SPOILERS AHEAD)
- I don’t like the characters. They’re all okay at first, Will has put his life on hold to care for his emotionally unstable sister who can’t seem to hold a job but has been crazy about patriotic duty, kindly asking the neighbor’s to dim lights or use their black out curtains. Ruby seems a decent kind of girl with her infatuation with poisons. And there’s the whole mystery of whether or not she poisoned someone. But then she ends up playing both fields if you know what I mean and both fields are all too ready to be played. None of them seem to be able to think clearly around each other because there’s this very weird love triangle type thing. I don’t know if it can be a love triangle when too angles are siblings and luckily incest isn’t on the table…at that point in the novel. And it’s all just lust. Maybe Maggie and Ruby, because there’s the chance of side conversations that we just don’t see? But definitely Will and Ruby. And basically, if I could sum up the three of them real quick for you:
Will: She can’t stay, we know nothing about her. She could be a spy.
Maggie: She’s glorious and defenseless like a wounded animal, let’s keep her
Will: For one night. *goes off to think about Ruby*
Ruby: *seduces both siblings*
Will: I want to keep her
Maggie: We can’t trust her, she might be a spy!
Will and Maggie: We can’t trust her but let’s keep her because we are both so messed up in the head and in the heart.
Ruby: *off to the side killing spiders and rats and learning how to be domestic* - Felix Cross. Ruby’s fiancé who she may or may not have poisoned, who may or may not have physically abused her. TBH Felix may be the only character I do like, aside from Mrs. Rivers. And he’s the bad guy? I have to put a question mark because–is he? I felt like Felix is there to throw you off. You think you’ve got a good story with him and either he was always meant to be the distraction or the author was like, “uh, how do I resolve this? I know, let’s throw in someone worse!” Except the curveball isn’t what the author thought it was. In fact, the twist happens and for me, everything came to a screeching halt because I was like, “That doesn’t work, it can’t work, but I will not endure going back to make sure I’m right that it can’t work”. Felix basically sacrifices his life to save Will’s, I mean, it was already on the way out, but he didn’t have to endure any more pain but he did and it saved Will. But then apparently he’s figured it out because with his dying breath he tells Will that Ruby is in danger…or Maggie is danger. He may have said Maggie is danger and Will is like, “Maggie’s in danger?” and Felix takes in a breath that ends up being his last so he can’t clarify. But seriously, dude was totally thrown off when they are attacked and somehow, despite the pain of a bullet to the gut and knife cuts to the wrist he has the clarity of mind to have figured out that Maggie is the danger? Anyway, that’s not even to the twist yet. Will’s dead step-father isn’t dead folks! He’s just been watching them? And he’s a Nazi-sympathizer, and he saved Maggie’s life when she tried to drown herself, and he’s convinced her to be patriotic but to Germany, and Maggie hasn’t been writing letters to her dead mother spilling all her secrets, she’s been writing to her dead father, who’s not dead (Maggie and Will are half siblings, sorry if I forgot to mention that). And her dead father shows no superior intellect but he was able to get past Felix who knows everything
Seriously, he knows all. But he didn’t know that Maggie was a Nazi working with her dead, not dead father.
3) Will’s almost death. So Will returns home to save his sister and Ruby from someone he hasn’t figured out is the real bad guy. He’s been stabbed and is losing blood but his first priority are these women. And what does Maggie do? Well, first, turns out she’s been poisoning him (TWIST – SHE was poisoning and not Ruby?) but then Daddy dearest tells her to finish him off with poison (instead of shooting him in the soundproof room they’ve created in the basement…) so Maggie prepares a deadly concoction and Will is like, “will this make you happy? Will killing me make you happy?” and she’s like, “Yeah, that’s why I’m asking you nicely to drink the poison. Just make it easy for me in my mentally fractured state to please my father who just pinched my butt and told me to sit on his lap despite the fact that I’m in my twenties and he is giving me the creeps.” SO HE DOES! He doesn’t plead, “Maggie, I’ve given up everything for you, I was going to give up Ruby for you, etc.” Nothing. He just kicks it back like no big deal. One – this doesn’t ring believable to me. Second – What a d-bag. he’s supposed to save Ruby and instead he’s like, “good luck, ho, you’re on your own!” But of course, I imagine this is for the opportunity for Ruby to be saved by her sister/aunt instead of a man. Because who needs men, amiright? THEN she returns to save Will because somehow Maggie and Ruby are so in sync with their poisoning that Ruby has been working on the activated charcoal that will save Will’s life. And the whole time I’m like, “what was the point of, not only killing of Felix, but him as a whole anyway?” we spent chapters dealing with that and it wasn’t even a threat. Also, we spent like every other chapter in Maggie’s head and then suddenly it’s like, “surprise! you knew all my deepest, darkest secrets but NOT THIS ONE!”
I hate unreliable narrators. I suppose if it’s done well it’s not bad but this one was not done well. The promise of the novel was that this was going to be more about spies and the Manhattan project and it ended up being a bunch of selfish, lustful young adults who can’t figure out what they want from one minute to the next and in the process getting some not very decent people killed. They all should have died. Will especially because that man didn’t even try and he did a poor job convincing me why he wouldn’t want to live. Therefore he forfeits his fictious life.
Lildonbro 