One step too far - Tina Seskis

Pages: 352 Published: 2013

I really enjoyed this book. It's the story of Emily, a woman who is running from herself and everyone she knows, unable to cope with a traumatic event that has turned her life upside down. She wants to start over, to bury the past and forget. Needless to say that running away is never the answer.

***SPOILER ALERT*** If you want to read this book, don't read the rest of the review. ***SPOILER ALERT***

I was surprised to see that this book had quite a few negative reviews. A lot of the reviews did not appreciate the fact that the author led the reader into thinking that Charlie was Emily's son and not her dog. At first I wasn't sure why the author had decided to go with this deception. I didn't understand the point of it, it seemed counter-intuitive to create such a big misunderstanding. However, after giving it some thought, I find it quite clever. It goes to show that our minds are always interpreting what we see or read or hear. I never once questioned whether Charlie was a little boy. And yet, at the very end of the book, with one single sentence, the whole misunderstanding is cleared up and my vision became clear. I think there is a parallel here with the communication difficulties between Emily and her husband. I read other reviews complaining that if Emily and her husband had just communicated properly after their son's death, the whole book could have been avoided and they could have just kept on going with their lives. The "Charlie" misunderstanding underlines that it's not always that simple. Sometimes things seem absolutely crystal clear in people's mind and they are so convinced that they are correct, they don't even think to question it. I never questioned whether Charlie was Emily's son or not. Had I questioned it, yes, the misunderstanding might have easily been cleared up. Had Emily been less convinced of her guilt, of her husband blaming her for the death of her two children, maybe she would have tried to verbalise her fears. But she was convinced, so she reacted to what she truly believed to be the truth.