Blue Hour

 Blue Hour

Reviewed By  Nan van Dissel       August 12, 2022

 

Author  Sarah Schmidt.

Distributor:      Hachette Australia
ISBN:                 9780733636912
Publisher:         Hachette Australia
Release Date:   August 2022  

   Website:   https://www.hachette.com.au

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Spanning over a period of four decades, ‘Blue Hour’, explores the ways the indescribable trauma of war impacts upon the complex, lives and marriages of Kitty and her daughter, Eleanor; both of whom were married to war damaged veterans. Mother and daughter have an uneasy relationship but share the legacies of war; the grief and the suffering.

Eleanor flees her disastrous marriage to Vietnam veteran Leon and escapes to the mountain of her childhood with her daughter Amy. During her long drive she begins to recall times in her tumultuous childhood with her mother, nurse Kitty and broken WWII veteran father George. 

The rare beautiful moments of the shared passion with her father for nature are overshadowed by Kitty’s ability to manipulate and punish her daughter for her own sorrow and disappointments. Her mother’s own marriage is impacted not only by George’s frequent breakdowns but also by her infidelity.

Although many of the multi-faceted characters are far from likeable, they provoke the readers’ sympathy for their inability to move on from the PTSD that blighted their families.  Readers will get caught up in the intricacies of their lives, their feelings and the actions which define them. 

‘Blue Hour’, Sarah Schmidt’s second book, is a slow burn in which the horror builds slowly, thus resulting in a powerful, harrowing and difficult read. Some readers will find the topics covered most disconcerting as the darker side of humanity is explored.

Fiction