Claudia Zuluaga

I liked this book well enough, except that it didn't seem to have much of a plot, and it had even less resolution. Rather than actually telling the stories that might create a climax and resolution, this novel just gives a summary of the various characters involved, the way documentaries summarize the stories of what happens after the events depicted in the film. Thus, finding the dead parents was practically a non-event, and the transition from the setting in which the majority of this book takes place to the setting at the very end where the houses are gone is entirely off-screen, making the last chapters of this book disorienting. We never find out what happened with the con artist whose con was the focus of the first part of this novel, either, and Peter is far too mysterious and caricatured, more like a cardboard fill-in for a character rather than a real person.

I still enjoyed this novel, but it just felt too unfinished to rate more than 3.5 stars on the goodreads scale. Since this site doesn't do half-stars, and the writing style was ok, I rounded up, so this book gets 4 stars on goodreads from me.… (mehr)

Ida Overdorff is twenty-four and from a broken family in upstate New York. She comes to Florida to sell a property she bought at nineteen – sight unseen. It’s the only thing of value Ida owns. She doesn’t have much going for her but a dream of being a baker and an invitation to move in with a friend in NYC. It’s not giving anything away to tell that she’s bought in a failed development and isn’t going to see any money for a while.

Ida ends up camping out in a half-finished home where her story intersects with several others. Peter, heir to a fortune he’s trying to reject. Carter and Donnie, two abandoned boys who have a bit in common with Ida. Ryan and Lloyd, a gay couple.

At times you can feel the story searching for a plot. The writing is memorable, but sometimes too detailed. The ending is satisfying in its refusal to wrap things up too neatly, which makes the book ultimately satisfying.… (mehr)