The Real Michael Swann by Bryan Reardon follows Julia Swann, a woman who discovers that her husband, Michael, may be involved in a terrorist plot. One summer day, Julia is on the phone with Michael when the call suddenly drops. She isn’t worried at first, assuming it’s just a bad connection. However, news soon breaks that a bomb has gone off in Penn Station—where Michael was waiting for a train home—and the entire city has erupted into chaos.
Panicked and desperate, Julia decides to go into the city to look for him. She creates flyers with Michael’s photo and posts them everywhere, hoping someone has seen him. When she finally receives a call from someone claiming to have spotted her husband, she’s relieved—but also uneasy, especially since Michael still isn’t answering his phone. Julia becomes increasingly frantic, worrying about what might have happened to him and why he hasn’t reached out.
At first, I really liked how the novel began, but by the midpoint, I hated it. The extremely short chapters felt like an attempt to create urgency and suspense, but instead the story dragged. There were pages and pages where nothing meaningful happened.
The book alternates between the present and Julia’s memories of meeting and falling in love with Michael. I think the author intended these scenes to humanize the characters, but as the story went on, I found myself disliking both of them. Julia was incredibly frustrating; she rarely seemed to think through the consequences of her actions and often leapt before looking. Some plot elements also felt far-fetched and unbelievable. While the ending was somewhat redeeming, it wasn’t enough to make the rest of the book feel worth it. Overall, I found it disappointing and tiresome.
No comments:
Post a Comment