The Truth about Ruby Cooper
It’s been a long time since I had read a book fanatically till the end.
The books I had been reading lately were either slow or educational. When I was reading Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout, I had to either take lots of breaks, or only do a few sections daily or even weekly. I loved the language, the expressions, but the story itself was calm and slow — not much happened. I enjoyed how only a very small thing develops or is revealed in each section. It helps people to pay attention to the small things in their own lives so that we don’t just think that life is happening when there are heavy stimulations or dramatic events. It also helps us to live more in the present.
The Truth about Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent is the opposite. Things start dramatically with “the incident”, and the story plays out for all participants around this “incident” for the next 30-ish years, showing how the incident governed their lives, led them choose various questionable decisions they would not have done without it.
The story was captivating, despite the language being simple. I can hardly recall any big words from this novel. This might also be the reason that reading the book felt like watching a well-written, well-directed drama, where I kept wanting to watch one more episode after another. The story kept me curious, where picking the book up and spending hours on it was easy.
Despite the amazing story, I can’t say the book is the most nutritious. Maybe because, growing up, I’ve been conditioned to want to learn from the things I do or the books I read. I didn’t learn much from this book, but I got a lot of entertainment from the story.
This book is fantastic for someone who enjoys exciting mysteries or grey characters. The protagonist Ruby is very unlikeable. I didn’t enjoy seeing her succeed at all because she didn’t deserve it. The ending gave me some satisfaction, where most people got what they deserved.