Daring Debut | Our Endless Numbered Days

   Our Endless Numbered Days, by Claire Fuller (2015)

 

The Facts:

• Claire Fuller is a gem, without a doubt. With her Twitter chat, as well as comments made to readers in The Socratic Salon discussion…. love it! Both divulge interesting “secrets” regarding her inspiration, process, and her view on readers, which I found fascinating.
• I see great things in her future, and will definitely pick up whatever she comes out with next.

 

Synopsis:

Peggy is a young girl with some interesting parents. Her mother is a semi-famous concert pianist, who robbed the cradle a bit in marrying her stand-in page turner. Her father, said page-turner, is a bit of a dreamer, and also a hard core Survivalist. One day, he whisks Peggy away from their home to live in an isolated cabin in the woods. And then some stuff happens.

 

(Really hard to execute) Non-Spoiler Review:

I will start by saying this… hype doesn’t always ruin a book for me, and certainly didn’t in this case. SO many bloggers I respect had read and raved about this, and I also participated in the Twitter chat with Claire Fuller (link above) when I was about half way through, so the hype was real, folks. This book SO did not disappoint.

It starts out pretty slow going, and just quietly lays the ground work in the character development department. So much of the story seems so unbelievable…. and yet, completely believable in the way everything was pristinely executed. The chapters alternate between Peggy’s time in the woods, and the time years later after she has returned home. This creates a dynamic push and pull of the story, where you get to see the “before” and the “after”… but of what…? You’ll have to read it to find out – mic drop.

This book is SO HARD to talk about without spoilers – accidental or otherwise, so I’m going to leave this relatively short and sweet. It’s a beautiful book, with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing, as well as enough ambiguity to allow the reader to fill in the holes with one’s own ideas. Everyone should read this book.

 

Rating:     [4.5/5 stars]

 

If You Want More:

• Monika found it a home run as well, and provides a few more details here.
• Loved Julianne’s review here, where she excellently describes Fuller’s writing and pacing of the story.

 

What say you, readers? Does this brief review do anything for you? Sway you to take a looksie?

 

| Our Endless Numbered Days | Tin House Books | 2015 | paperback | library |