A review by susanatwestofmars
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
2.0
I went from liking this to absolutely loathing it by the end.
I get that this is set in the 80s and life was so very different from what it is now. I get it. But even back in the 80s, attention was paid to bipolar disorder and to autism and/or OCD. These were already things we knew about. Yes, they were treated differently, but on the flip side, this blatant ignoring of the issues -- and not just the mental health issues, but Mary Beth's adopting Tommy is SO problematic. Where was the paperwork? Where were the home visits, the social workers, the people going, "Hey, you're young and you've got this teenaged sister and you have no tools to help"? In the 80s, agencies were more on top of things like this. Schools were too. It's impossible for no one to have gossiped about what was going on in Leeann's homelife, especially given how the two Ds seemed to like to gossip. And this is set in a small town! Small towns are RIFE with gossip.
Now, for abuse? Nah. That wouldn't get called out.
But the issues with Mary Beth raising both Tommy and Leeann, and the fact that no one noticed when Leeann started skipping school and picking up Tommy and dude. I was that age in the 80s. Driving without a permit, even? You'd have gotten caught simply because kids at school talk. Again: Small town. Gossip. Especially once everyone starts talking about Mary Beth and Holly. SOMEONE would have taken a closer look at the family and sprung all their secrets.
Mary Beth was an absolutely problem. She's SO CLEARLY gaslighting Leeann in the beginning, and she's SO CLEARLY cycling through bipolar moods and highs and lows. And even the people in the mental hospital can't see it? At the end, when she's so bright, it hurts Leeann to look at her? That she grows more beautiful in her manic phases?
I. Don't. Buy. This.
(Oh, and let's talk about how absolutely inappropriate every last thing the so-called doctor in the mental hospital does. Leeann is not her patient. She should have been brought up in front of the board and stripped of her licensing for what she did there. You do NOT diagnose anyone who's not your client. And having been faced with this, let me tell you: Health care professionals take this VERY seriously.)
Ben's an issue, too. Why is he hanging around? Why can't he shake Mary Beth? (Why the hell is Mary Beth presented as some goddess? I know this is through Leeann's lens, but come ON.) How does he know when to intervene, why does he wait so long, why is he so ineffectual? And why does he go from being an advocate and friend to Leeann to calling her honey and dismissing her? Ugh. Ben sucked.
Henry at least was interesting. Autistic? Completely crippled by anxiety and OCD--true OCD? We don't know. No one's ever interested in dealing with Henry as anything other than a plot moppet, and that includes Leeann, who manipulates him because she at least is smart enough to realize that without a real parental figure in the household, the family's in danger. Although she had one who was refusing to take action, and by that, I mean...
Juanita. Whoa. WHAT is her deal? She leaves Leeann to handle a deteriorating home situation and it's only when Ben (the most functional male character, mind you) intervenes that hey! She's suddenly acting parental! Whoo hoo! She's SO good to Leeann that she... did nothing while Leeann struggled. Fuck you, Juanita. You're trash, only stepping up to cover your hide and look good to the world.
Mike went from being this crazy dude to... okay, that's a weird explanation of his nickname to... entirely too parental, adult, and mature. His mother gets better and he's instantly... well, the person Ben had been.
Ugh. This is an older book, and even the cover copy has been rewritten because the story inside the book was not the story on the old back cover. But that's incidental to the other really serious problems.
If you're easily triggered by depictions of rampant mental illness, stay away from this one. It's a trainwreck.
I get that this is set in the 80s and life was so very different from what it is now. I get it. But even back in the 80s, attention was paid to bipolar disorder and to autism and/or OCD. These were already things we knew about. Yes, they were treated differently, but on the flip side, this blatant ignoring of the issues -- and not just the mental health issues, but Mary Beth's adopting Tommy is SO problematic. Where was the paperwork? Where were the home visits, the social workers, the people going, "Hey, you're young and you've got this teenaged sister and you have no tools to help"? In the 80s, agencies were more on top of things like this. Schools were too. It's impossible for no one to have gossiped about what was going on in Leeann's homelife, especially given how the two Ds seemed to like to gossip. And this is set in a small town! Small towns are RIFE with gossip.
Now, for abuse? Nah. That wouldn't get called out.
But the issues with Mary Beth raising both Tommy and Leeann, and the fact that no one noticed when Leeann started skipping school and picking up Tommy and dude. I was that age in the 80s. Driving without a permit, even? You'd have gotten caught simply because kids at school talk. Again: Small town. Gossip. Especially once everyone starts talking about Mary Beth and Holly. SOMEONE would have taken a closer look at the family and sprung all their secrets.
Mary Beth was an absolutely problem. She's SO CLEARLY gaslighting Leeann in the beginning, and she's SO CLEARLY cycling through bipolar moods and highs and lows. And even the people in the mental hospital can't see it? At the end, when she's so bright, it hurts Leeann to look at her? That she grows more beautiful in her manic phases?
I. Don't. Buy. This.
(Oh, and let's talk about how absolutely inappropriate every last thing the so-called doctor in the mental hospital does. Leeann is not her patient. She should have been brought up in front of the board and stripped of her licensing for what she did there. You do NOT diagnose anyone who's not your client. And having been faced with this, let me tell you: Health care professionals take this VERY seriously.)
Ben's an issue, too. Why is he hanging around? Why can't he shake Mary Beth? (Why the hell is Mary Beth presented as some goddess? I know this is through Leeann's lens, but come ON.) How does he know when to intervene, why does he wait so long, why is he so ineffectual? And why does he go from being an advocate and friend to Leeann to calling her honey and dismissing her? Ugh. Ben sucked.
Henry at least was interesting. Autistic? Completely crippled by anxiety and OCD--true OCD? We don't know. No one's ever interested in dealing with Henry as anything other than a plot moppet, and that includes Leeann, who manipulates him because she at least is smart enough to realize that without a real parental figure in the household, the family's in danger. Although she had one who was refusing to take action, and by that, I mean...
Juanita. Whoa. WHAT is her deal? She leaves Leeann to handle a deteriorating home situation and it's only when Ben (the most functional male character, mind you) intervenes that hey! She's suddenly acting parental! Whoo hoo! She's SO good to Leeann that she... did nothing while Leeann struggled. Fuck you, Juanita. You're trash, only stepping up to cover your hide and look good to the world.
Mike went from being this crazy dude to... okay, that's a weird explanation of his nickname to... entirely too parental, adult, and mature. His mother gets better and he's instantly... well, the person Ben had been.
Ugh. This is an older book, and even the cover copy has been rewritten because the story inside the book was not the story on the old back cover. But that's incidental to the other really serious problems.
If you're easily triggered by depictions of rampant mental illness, stay away from this one. It's a trainwreck.