My Rating:
3.5⭐
Three-year-old Harry Monroe was taken from his home by someone dressed as a clown as the recording from the baby monitor reveals. His disappearance shocks the small town of Tall Oaks. Jess, Harry’s mother frantically searches for her child and follows up with the police for information on the investigation by day while driven to self-destructive behavior with a series of one-night stands and drunken episodes by night. Jess is separated from her husband Michael who has never shown much interest in his child and has indulged in a string of extramarital affairs throughout his marriage to Jess.
As the narrative progresses we meet an interesting cast of characters, all residents of Tall Oaks and known to Jess among whom are Jim, a law enforcement officer investigating Harry’s disappearance, Elena and her teenage son Manny who is a fan of Stallone’s Rocky movie series and fancies himself a “gangster” which leads to some genuinely hilarious moments and Elena’s daughter Thalia who was a friend of Harry, Jerry who works in a photography studio while caring for his terminally ill and controlling mother, Roger and his wife Henrietta who a lost their child shortly after his birth, Jared who is romantically involved with Elena and is a newcomer working in a car dealership and many more. Needless to say, most of the residents have their share of secrets and deceptions which slowly rise to the surface as the narrative progresses.
Tall Oaks by Chris Whitaker has a lot to offer. The author explores themes of love, family, marriage and fidelity, loss and grief, second chances, teenage love and angst and self-acceptance among the residents of a small town. Though the novel revolves around a missing child, the author injects a healthy dose of humor to offset the grim overtones of the novel. The ending was a shocker that I did not predict which is always a plus point for me. However, I felt that the multiple characters and their storylines were difficult to keep track of and distracted from the core mystery of the missing child. Though the multiple tracks were somewhat linked, most of the characters (and their issues) were of no consequence to the main plot and though all the sub-plots are wrapped up nicely in the end, I was left feeling as if I had just read a collection of interlinked short stories rather than a complete novel.
Overall, Tall Oaks is a well-written and engaging read but I did not find it quite as impressive as Chris Whitaker’s We Begin At The End which was among my favorite reads of 2021 .
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