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A review by sarahetc
The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
4.0
Okay, this was a well-written story, but I find it difficult to review. Super fast plot summation and it's nothing that's not clear from page five, so no spoilers, but this novel is 300-some pages of wish fulfillment fantasy we've all had about the Duggars-- what if one of those horrible boys whose famous parents cover for him finally went too far and his victim sister (free Jinger!) finally really, truly FUCKING STUCK it to him. And in that way, it's very good. It looks like it took me 11 days to read this and it really took two, because Weir writes very smoothly, with well defined characters and a level of technical detail that is just right. She walks a fairly precise edge of detail-- what does she fill in for which characters. And she does it well. She lets the popular imagination of Duggars and other quasi-Christian celebrity cults fill in broad, shallow blanks.
That said, there was a degree of predictability to the narrative. Of course the boy was gay. Of course the plot unspooled just so. Of course the journalist figured out the Secret of the Bust in the Library (no, it did not swerve Nancy Drew but that might've helped). Of course the journalist and her producer were able to make the thing happen on deadline because of course.
And finally, I think that while the book was very well-written overall, compelling, and full of heart, Weir crosses a line. The journalist who edits together The Book of Essie is called Liberty Bell and as cheesy as it is to see it there, it's not in the book. It makes perfect sense. She's Essie's foil because although she wasn't a child in a celebrity fecundity cult, she was a child in a cult whose family was inexorably torn by unstable, illogical actions between parents and government. And I am probably reading too much into it, but it seems like Libby's story is largely analogous to the events of Ruby Ridge. Which pisses me off. Christianity might be a part of the Venn diagram Weir's attempting to create between the Duggars and the Weavers, but let's not pretend like the ATF shot one of however many kids they have now in a... I have to stop.
Well done, compelling, technically adept. A little too pat.
That said, there was a degree of predictability to the narrative. Of course the boy was gay. Of course the plot unspooled just so. Of course the journalist figured out the Secret of the Bust in the Library (no, it did not swerve Nancy Drew but that might've helped). Of course the journalist and her producer were able to make the thing happen on deadline because of course.
And finally, I think that while the book was very well-written overall, compelling, and full of heart, Weir crosses a line. The journalist who edits together The Book of Essie is called Liberty Bell and as cheesy as it is to see it there, it's not in the book. It makes perfect sense. She's Essie's foil because although she wasn't a child in a celebrity fecundity cult, she was a child in a cult whose family was inexorably torn by unstable, illogical actions between parents and government. And I am probably reading too much into it, but it seems like Libby's story is largely analogous to the events of Ruby Ridge. Which pisses me off. Christianity might be a part of the Venn diagram Weir's attempting to create between the Duggars and the Weavers, but let's not pretend like the ATF shot one of however many kids they have now in a... I have to stop.
Well done, compelling, technically adept. A little too pat.