Any time we come across a book that upends every predictable expectation and freely bends and warps the genre it's supposed to inhabit.....that's a book worth diving into....
And the author of this one, like all great storytellers, kept us turning the pages way, way past our bedtime....
We'll take a brief stab at categorizing it......you might call "The Right Side" a gut-wrenching cross-country drama that concludes with a half a pint of thriller, one quart of alternately funny and heartwarming dog-bonding and a tablespoon of romance......
LeAnne Hogan an Army sergeant recovering at Walter Reed hospital from an Afghan terrorist's grenade attack, is a wounded warrior in body, heart and soul. The attack has destroyed her right eye and ravaged that side of her face with scars........afflicted with PTSD, her traumatic past and present constantly collide to the point where she can't separate them. As she struggles to reconnect the jigsaw puzzle of her memories, she's consumed with guilt that her own moment of negligence may have led to the deaths of her fellow soldiers.....including the Captain she fell in love with.....
The last straw for LeAnne comes when her beloved hospital roommate Marci, a fellow wounded vet, dies suddenly. LeAnne, taking little with her than her Bronze Star and a carton of replacement eyeballs, escapes Walter Reed and hits the road westward, heading for her home in Arizona. .....
This incredible character created by author Spencer Quinn, a lost, vulnerable soul with a core of steel, a slashing wit and zero tolerance for bullshit of any kind (real or imagined) will grip you on every page.....
Quinn veers LeAnne into thriller territory as she gravitates to Marci's small hometown in Washington State.....and involves herself in the search for Marci's 8 year old daughter, who's gone missing right after attending Marci's funeral. Barely keeping her rage under control, LeAnne ends up with an unlikely ally and companion: a huge stray dog who has saved LeAnne from a suicide attempt....
None of these plot threads go in any direction you thought they would......and Quinn sentimentalizes nothing here, especially LeAnne, whose flaws and agony are served up with raw honesty. (Which only serves to endear her to us more..........)
So remember the name "The Right Side" (which you won't forget once you start reading, since it's LeAnne's blind side...) LeAnne's got one Bronze Star.......and we give her and and her story 5 stars (*****), a FIND OF FINDS....another one of our favorite 2017 reads.....
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