In the summer of 1962, at a high school graduation party, Bessie Day Hardy is brutally raped. Fifty years later, the consequences of that horrific night will transition into unforeseen events that will shatter her serene and uncomplicated life.
Lies a River Deep
By verajanecook
Vera Jane Cook’s Lies a River Deep is a challenging but incredibly rewarding read. The novel deals with some very dark themes, and Cook is unrelenting in her honesty and assessment of these.
The novel works so well though because of the excellent central character that Cook has created. Bessie is a beautifully written protagonist and it is this that makes the exploration of her past so devastating.
This is a novel that explores the impact that the traumas of our past can have on us and it also explores the way that our families and those close to us can lie about events in order to try and maintain the status quo. It’s a thrilling read but one that is not for the faint of heart when it comes to certain subject matters.
Another thing that Lies a River Deep gets right is its period setting. Vera Jane Cook expertly takes us back to the 1960s and she doesn’t worry about romanticizing it, which makes the novel even stronger.
Through an intricate weaving of characters, a dramatic event, and fresh information, Vera Jane Cook constructs Lies a River Deep. Bessie Day Hardy has tried to put the awful night she was viciously raped behind her, but fifty years later news surfaces that bring back a flood of memories. As the story swings back in time, the reader sees a simpler time when life was black and white. You don’t talk about many things, being a rape victim was a taboo. The story swings back to present time and you see how life has changed in fifty years.
Lies a River Deep by Vera Jane Cook is an eye opener for long term damage done to people who are raped. It was interesting to see Bessie Day Hardy’s input from when she was a teenager and then again fifty years later. This story starts slow, but picks up quickly halfway through. This novel will affect you; parts are emotional and other parts will make you question humanity. The insight from the cat, Spider, is a cute touch.
New York City author Vera Jane Cook writes suspense filled sci-fi novels – PHAROAH’S STAR and ANNABEL HORTON, LOST WITCH OF SALEM and now ANNABEL HORTON AND THE BLACK WITCH OF PAU using the moniker ‘Olivia Hardy Ray,’ and while maintaining her true name, she has authored a number of prize winning women’s fiction novels – DANCING BACKWARD IN PARADISE, THE STORY OF SASSY SWEETWATER, PLEASANT DAY, WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW, and LIES A RIVER DEEP. Her sci-fi novels luxuriate in a historical milieu while her women’s fiction novels are very much in the contemporary vein.
Having read a novel in each of this talented author’s two realms, it is comfortable to report that she/’they’ are fine story spinners. The quality of prose is as enchanting as the stories she weaves. In her contemporary stories – such as LIES A RIVER DEEP – she manages to recreate periods of the recent past with such clarity that we feel we are present with the characters. She is unafraid to embrace tough subject matter such as rape and aging and other relationship variations and in doing so encourages us to expand our views while identifying with her characters.
Jane’s sensitivity to the process of aging is openly apparent as we read, ‘Bessie chuckled. Living long wasn’t the blessing it used to be. Aging was in the way. Couldn’t leave a person alone, had to show up and make her breath short, expose every damn vein in her body, and give her the unsightly imprint of impending death. Nobody wanted to look at mortality too closely and aging people carry its threat, vulnerably apparent, the weight of its nearness was a monster in the wings where heaven was a nebulous cracked mirror; don’t look into it, the young whispered; don’t look yet.’ Meeting Bessie as an elderly woman makes her history (and this story’s impact) significant.
Jane leaves a brief glance at the story to come – ‘In the summer of 1962, at a high school graduation party, Bessie Day Hardy is brutally raped. Fifty years later, the consequences of that horrific night will transition into unforeseen events that will shatter her serene and uncomplicated life.’
Vera Jane Cook not only writes well; she also allows her readers to explore too seldom viewed vistas of life’s slings and arrows. Her presence is a significant contribution to expanding our thoughts. Recommended.
Family secrets reveal some skeletons. Depicted through flashbacks and backstory a woman’s life of sorrow and bravery. A mother trying to do right by her daughter barely feeling her own existence, lack of activity, sleepiness, and a loneness that grips her daughter with concern. Only in high school, Bessie maintains her athletic body and sports with friends and a boyfriend. A backstory of the a proud and outgoing sophomore , who built her relationship and kept it for three years. Yet the absence of father, Bessie’s lacked the teachings of how men should treat women, the acceptable way to care. Bessie’s mother made choices to protect her daughter but along the way caused tension and deception. Every mother-daughter relationship fosters tension. Maybe the illusion of her being both mother and father debilitated Mrs. Day’s choices to be a loner after not having her husband. Bessie finds herself questioning her future with college. Wondering if Roland and her are true meant to be’s.
And now forty years in the future our narration is present, revealing crimes of passion, anger and secrets. m A past that Bessie did not want to reface. Family secrets reveal some skeletons. Depicted through flashbacks and backstory a woman’s life of sorrow and bravery.
Vera the author is a gifted storyteller and quite the detective. A stronger author has to be immersed in the plot fully to have the potential to bring words into a visual reality. Staggering through emotions, digging through eras of unacceptance, concealing the truth and shame. Bessie Day’s life’s ambition trying to overcome the adolescent mistakes referring to her rape. This fiction novel proves the humanity of people throughout the years, focused on many life events by support of many robust character arc with four prevalent people in Bessie’s life.
Maggie her best friend, supported Bessie’s energy and fondness of her being active in sports very athletic and toned. Strength from playing racquetball, tennis balls and cycling. It is sure a valuable detail since Bessie will later need to fight off the perpetrator during her sexual violation. A man who gave her compliments and showed her interest. A man who then stripped her dignity, soul, and body with a violation so damning, anyone would hush about it. The era of the 1960’s no one discussed ‘rape’.
From innocence to old age, now in her seventies, the demons of Bessie’s adolescence dared her life to be a series of bad habits and suffering. The support system of Maggie and later in life, Lily, Bessie relented to put her past behind her. Until the day when the character’s of her past resurface, aged, wrinkly and out for something.
So who did rape Bessie back then? Was it someone she knew? Was it a stranger looking to push boundaries knowing that politics and law would have difficulty protecting in the 1960’s?
Layed down against her will to be a domineering man?
‘Lies a River Deep’ by Vera Jane Cook is a heart-wrenching novel that really broke my heart in moments, but it was also compelling and authentic, with an amazing protagonist in Bessie Day Hardy, who suffered a brutal rape at a high school party. Fifty years later, that dreadful night back in 1962 comes back to hunt her – there are betrayals in store as secrets are unearthed. Someone close to Bessie knows more about that dreadful night than they have ever let on and the truth will be explosive.
The emotional novel was so well-written and the subject of rape was handled sensitively by the author, without shying away from the impact it can have on the victim throughout the course of their life. Seamlessly moving between the past and present, the plot took numerous twists and turns, adding to the suspense in the build up of the full truth finally being revealed. A great read, with a strong and inspirational female protagonist.