Demise of the Soccer Moms, by Cathryn Grant

I purchased The Demise Of The Soccer Moms, by Cathryn Grant, from Amazon.com and used my own copy for this review.

Description (from Amazon.com):

Witnessing her mother’s rape left Amy Lewis disturbed and haunted by irrational fears. Now, a brutal assault in her upscale suburban community has forced her to rely even more on her comforting rituals. When Amy’s husband befriends Charlotte, a sexy single mother, the cruel voice of Amy’s father is unleashed in her memory, transforming Amy’s paranoia into psychosis.

In a world where suburban women, tormented by obsessive fears for their children, are on a collision course, not all of them will survive.

Suburban Noir — where suspense meets psychological horror.

Overall Rating: 5 stars

Plot: 4 1/2 stars

I don’t know if this book was intended to be satire, a fictionalized expose, or a scathing look at modern culture – or all of the above. It is the story of a group of woman who apparently ‘have it all’ – money, happy marriages, healthy children, beauty, etc. – but underneath the veneer, all is not well. Their little comfortable clique is disrupted by the arrival in town of a single mother and her daughter, neither of who fit into the group’s idea of what is appropriate or acceptable. The insecurities, fears, and flaws of the various members of the clique are exposed and highlighted by the personality of the newcomer. She is everything that they are not, and they dislike her for it. The story follows the interactions and conflicts between the group and the newcomer, and how her very presence in town shows up the truth behind their façade of contentment. The reader watches as events run their course. All the characters are changed by the conflicts, some for better, some for worse; none escape unscathed.

Characters: 4 1/2 stars

The vast majority of the characters in this story are not likeable. Some you can feel pity for; others make you grateful you are not them. Most are shallow and self-satisfied, and you feel a touch of smug satisfaction as they get their comeuppance when their sense of superiority is destroyed. A couple are so realistically portrayed that you want to get to know them better and be friends. All of them are totally believable – any one of them could be the woman next door that you say “Good Morning” to every day while waiting with your child for the school bus. And every one of them wears a false face. Only Charlotte, and her daughter Meadow, are genuine. What you see is what you get, but even Charlotte is reticent about her past and what brings her and her daughter to town. The women’s husbands play secondary roles, but they are equally strongly drawn. Justin is weak and willing to overlook his wife’s mental problems. Greg is an agreeable Everyman, and supports his wife in a no-nonsense way that helps her realize where her true loyalties and happiness lie. Mark doesn’t actually come into the story, but you can feel his presence.

Writing Style: 5 stars

The author’s writing style amazed me. The story was told as simply and matter-of-factly as though it was a newspaper report. She was able to get inside the heads of her characters to an incredible degree and expose their vulnerabilities, their insecurities, their fears, and even mental illness without flinching. And, make no mistake about it – there’s a definite subplot throughout the story of mental illness and how it manifests and how people are able to willfully close their eyes to the obvious in the name of love or of fear. The author’s handling of the interpersonal relationships and how they all played off each other was superb and excruciatingly true-to-life. The climax is inevitable – you can see it building and watch anxiously as those who could stop it turn a blind eye until too late. When all is said and done, you heave a sigh of relief and know that even though it will be a long, hard climb for the remaining soccer moms, they will make it, sadder but wiser. I started out not liking this book at all, but by about 20% in, I realized what it was really about, and from that point on, I was swept along, unable to stop reading.

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About the author, Cathryn Grant (from her website):

All my life, I’ve irritated family, friends, and co-workers by incessantly asking, Why? In real crime, the why is left unanswered too many times. My fiction tells the stories of ordinary people driven to commit crimes, especially homicide. You could call them why-dunnits rather than who-dunnits.

Readers have said they stayed up late because they couldn’t go to sleep until they finished reading my first novel, THE DEMISE OF THE SOCCER MOMS! My second novel, BURIED BY DEBT, will be released in November 2011.

Psychological suspense meets the supernatural in my novella series featuring Madison Keith. The first two ebooks in the series, FATAL CUT (#1) and SHALLOW WATER (#2) are available for Kindle, Nook, and iBook. The third novella, UNHOLY CHILD, will be released in December 2011.

My short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and my short story, “I Was Young Once” received an honorable mention from Joyce Carol Oates in the 2007 Zoetrope All-story Short Fiction contest.

The Demise Of The Soccer Moms, by Cathryn Grant