The Leftovers - Cassandra Parkin

I’ve read a couple of Cassandra Parkin’s books and I have more waiting on my TBR shelves. I was fortunate enough to interview her a few years ago when Underwater Breathing was published and she remains firmly on my radar. I am always interested to see what she’s up to!  Her books are unusual and deceptive in her ability to take a situation and send it hurtling every which through your reader mind leaving you sometimes battered and bruised emotionally but with that satisfying feeling of  having read a book of substance.

The Leftovers is a challenging read in that it explores themes of ‘sexual power and consent’ together with notions of love and friendship, and making choices. Pertinent topically, too, there’s reference to the effects of lockdown on residents of institutions. Also of consideration is the treatment of mental illness and the wider reaching effects on both sufferer and family. It’s dark in places, hard hitting but the threads of love tie it all together.

Callie is the narrator, fragile and flawed, yet caring and loving. She cares for her brother and she has a client, Frey, who she cares for too. A tragic event is the catalyst for Callie to recount and examine her past and its impact on her present. Ms. Parkin seems to have an intuitive ability to understand and create characters that both fulfil a role in the narrative but also present as complete people who step off the page and into the readers’ hearts. Frey just broke my heart! But for him to do that he needed a writer who could articulate, so effectively and movingly, an autistic mind and bring him to life. The novel is very much character driven, Callie’s family and her colleague Josh are the cement which keep the narrative flowing through all its tribulations. Josh is a lovely character, aways seeming positive and upbeat and his treatment of Frey is delightful in his ability to care without making a big deal out of it.

The book is a little like a roller coaster ride with peaks and troughs of unspeakable harshness and whimsical sequences of harmony and tenderness. Ultimately in spite of all that Callie goes through the conclusion, like life, is ambiguous. Some readers may find that off-putting if they are the kind of reader who wants all their ends neatly tied up but for others there is much to resonate for some time after you’ve finished the story.

My thanks to Legend Press and NetGalley for a gifted copy.