Where one member falls in the public’s eye, all members of the family fall with them.

Another of the titles I selected for Around the Year in 52 Books-2023 edition, I chose ‘why’ as the question word that would fill the prompt. Fitting, considering I’ve often been told it was the second word I ever said after ‘hi.’ I don’t remember that of course, but I do remember saying it many, many times throughout my childhood (after too).

Ask Him Why frustrated me in the beginning because I just didn’t like it, then frustrated me again because of just how much it resonated with me at the end. I wish I could give this book two different ratings. Lower for the first half and much higher for the second. From a rough start, everything after get so much better to eventually bordering on being one of my favorites (that ending!). If you are the type that can plod steadily along on a not very straight road to get their reward, I promise a very juicy carrot at the end.

An older half-sibling makes a decision while deployed overseas that has severe ramifications for the rest of his family, with a particular focus on his younger brother and sister. A media circus turns a rather normal childhood into chaos that has only one strange sanctuary: an old man on a bluff that retired and found a new job catching those that wanted to use the cliff side for more than sightseeing.

As the alternating point-of-view characters chapter by chapter until the epilogue, everything that happens in the story filters through the younger siblings’ perspectives. This created a few huge problems for me as a reader. It’s presented like the siblings’ older selves are recounting things. That really isn’t a thread that’s kept up throughout and when we are introduced to the siblings as those older selves later…they don’t really match up all that much either. The level of sarcasm and jadedness at even the younger age also feels a little out of place. There are some amazing lines, but when it’s heaped on again and again, the feeling becomes redundant. It goes from ‘heh, relatable’ to ‘enough now’ and sails past ‘please stop, we GET IT.’

The main issue I took with the first part though is just how much the same the two points of view are. The voices, tone, perspective of the world of the two siblings felt almost homogenous despite the obvious differences of gender and age. I often had to go back to the chapter header to make sure I was understanding which sibling I was reading. After the age up into adulthood, they finally started feeling like truly separate voices.

What this novel really does have going for it though is that despite a rough beginning, I did feel paid off for reading this in the end. Despite the question in the title, I definitely wasn’t still asking why at the end but where. Where can I find my own emotional support Scotsman?

Ask Him Why is available to buy on Amazon.

Verdict:

READABLE