Death in Her Hands

This is my third Ottessa attempt, and this time we’ve got a winner. I’m a bit picky when it comes to my dysfunctional women, and My Year of Rest and Relaxation hit on one I didn’t like. Eileen I just felt was repetitive, needed to get to something /happening/ sooner. But I enjoyed Ottessa’s style enough to keep trying her work. And it has paid off!

It’s pretty clear that the theme here is death, if you couldn’t tell by the title and the multiple ways it comes up in the story. Fear of it, what comes after it, how it happens, regrets of the life lived before it, etc. I love a consistent theme and this book has it.

I think readers looking for a murder mystery or thriller here will be disappointed, and the blurb kind of sets expectations for that. I was more open to whatever the book wanted to be, knowing Ottessa would not do something straightforward.

The story gets very surreal by the end. I haven’t quite decided what I think of it or if it matters. I think she possibly died when she entered the pine woods, given how strange everything after was. But it could also be that her perception was so warped, or a dream, or just strange!

I loved the slow burn, the slow descent (?) into obsession. You get to a point where you’re like, wow, how did we get here??