I took a breather from my usual stephen king / genre reading to listen to the excellent narration of Rebecca, far from my usual type of story. (Actually, king recommends it frequently.) It was slow paced yet so well written I enjoyed getting absorbed in it almost like comfort food. I expected a thriller, which it was not, though I enjoyed most of it. I do agree with the general consensus that the ending is lack luster – regardless how you feel about the characters’ fates, it was all anticlimactic at the very end.
My biggest gripe however and I don’t seem to see enough discussion about is the character of Ben. What a blatant abuse of the chekov’s gun rule. Ben was the smoking gun the whole time and what a brilliant twist it was to bring him in and have him blow the case open. To have him cover it up also, presumably under Frank’s orders, and then slink away rendered the character completely useless. What a letdown. If you completely remove Ben from the story, absolutely nothing would change. And for a character with so much literary promise it really bugs me.
Any thoughts on Ben to redeem his justification to exist in the story?
Rebecca generously earns 3 out 5 stars overall from me mostly on the strength of its writing.
by SadlyNotSpaceballs