Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.
She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching Friends reruns.
And Lenny Marks is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this.
Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free audiobook was provided for an honest review.
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| July 2024; Macmillan Audio; 9781250349804 audio (9h 41m), ebook, print; women's fiction |
Often there is a bit of time between when I get a book for review and when I actually get to read it. So I sometimes forget what a book is about and I don't read the book summary when I start it. This leads me to not knowing what a book is going to be about. That's the case with Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne. With the title and the cute cover with a girl on her bicycle, I thought it might be a humorous book.
I was definitely wrong about it being a light read. It was much heavier than I was expecting.
When I started listening to the book, I quickly figured out that it wasn't set in the U.S. It's set in Australia which seems to be popping up more and more as a setting in the books I read. I was tipped off by the accents but I think it was a few chapters before a place was mentioned. It also became evident pretty quickly that the title character Lenny Marks is neurodivergent, which had me wondering if this would be similar to The Maid. But again I was wrong.
I wondered for quite some time whether Lenny was on the autism spectrum. It might still be possible but I think her quirks are more a result of childhood trauma. If this is a trigger for you, you might want to be cautious when picking up this book. There is only one real scene but several inferences to what happened to her. I don't want to give too much away but if you are concerned you can contact me and I can give you more details.
I usually enjoy character-driven novels, but this one dragged for me. I also think that Lenny reminded me too much of myself. I never told people I had a roommate when I didn't, but I let people believe I had friends who I did stuff with (they assumed and I never corrected them). I totally understood her feelings of abandonment and feeling that people did not want to be her friend. It dredged up some stuff for me so it made for an uncomfortable read, especially since a lot of time is spent setting up her character.
It is a well-written novel and the narrator, Annie Maynard, did a great job voicing the characters. There are flashback chapters but they are dated and it was easy to follow the audiobook.
If you are looking for a book with a complex character then this is definitely a book you should consider.
Buy Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder at Amazon
Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.
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