In Wonderland by Joyce Maynard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Maynard is such a wonderful storyteller. This is the story of Frances, fourteen, who gets to spend the summer in a lakefront home in Maine as a mother’s helper. A world that is usually completely inaccessible to her, one full of country clubs, tennis tutors and more. This life seems magical to Frances who falls in love with so much of it and doesn’t want the days to end. Until she realizes things are maybe not exactly as they seem and that maybe all that glitters is not, in fact, gold.
The secrets start unraveling, her dreams of what this life is get shattered again and again as she gets embedded into the lives of the family she’s staying with. This story brims with so much life. Frances’ own coming of age story juxtaposed with the marriage and personal traumas of the Regina and Forrest and the lives of the two kids they have creates this layered and textured story of how complex each of our lives are and how nothing is really what it seems.
The audio version of this story was truly excellent, transporting you into the mind of Frances as she learns to navigate so much in one short summer.
with gratitude to netgalley and Brilliance Audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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