This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Susan Lobban
Judy Blume is back with her first adult novel for 17 years and it is based on true events, which happened in her hometown back in the 50s. It seems far-fetched for three separate planes to crash in the same town within months of each other, but it actually happened and shows truth really is stranger than fiction.
This retelling of factual events follows a whole of host of characters whose lives are dramatically affected by unexpected tragedy. Amongst the residents is fifteen-year-old Miri Ammerman whose life is full of friends and family. The only thing she had to worry about was whether she would see her mysterious dance partner again. Then drama literally drops from the sky and fractures everyone’s small town innocence forever.
In the book, Judy Blume has used a string of events in her personal past as inspiration; however, rather than a memoir she has created numerous fictional residents for the town of Elizabeth. Personally, I found using so many points of view confusing at times, especially keeping track of who knew who. Just as I was beginning to familiarize myself with the characters, someone else would be added in. The writing style of character narrative changing every few paragraph rather than every chapter also affected the flow of the story and meant I didn’t get a true sense of each character. I understand that the author wanted to convey how many people were affected by the plane crashes, but it felt as though I had read through a big chunk of the book before I got any depth. Funnily enough Miri, the central character, seemed the least affected by the crashes even compared to some people only briefly mentioned.
The characters I found most riveting were the people on the planes, which crashed. Even though the reader only catches glimpses of their lives, the fact that you knew the end was nigh made it all the more poignant. Down below in Elizabeth, the townsfolk only became more interesting a good two thirds into the book.
Overall I am really glad I read In The Unlikely Event and if I had not known beforehand that the story was based on real history, I would not have believed it. By the time I reached the last page I did get a true sense of how greatly everyone had been affected, but it took a long time to get to that point. I think it would have been a more touching story with less points of view.7/10