More than I bargained for: Strange Attractors by Ana K. Wrenn

More than I bargained for: Strange Attractors by Ana K. WrennOccasionally, a book comes along and delivers a punch that is truly surprising. When I downloaded Strange Attractors, I thought I was about to indulge in your typical suspense/mystery novel. Well, mostly typical. I knew the characters engaged in some lady lovin’ at some point in the story. And that’s pretty atypical of a suspense/mystery novel. It’s also primarily why I picked this one up.

I started this book on Halloween weekend because what better time for spookiness and lady lovin’? I mean, Halloween is Gay Christmas after all. On that front, I got exactly what I was hoping for - eerie and unsettling, but not too scary that I couldn’t sleep at night. It was just enough to make me nervous about taking the dogs out after dark. Perfect for my tastes when it comes to spooky stories.

About the book itself, Dr. Sonja J. Storey is a professor at a southern Appalachian college who has endured years of workplace harassment. She is tenacious and cold and strong-willed. Crystal Byrd is an up and coming assistant professor new to the campus and to town. She is warm and bright and resilient. Storey spends most of the novel grappling with threats from a terror-inducing campus stalker. The stalking spills off campus as the threats and intimidations penetrate her carefully emotionally fortified home. Byrd bears witness to these threats while facing down harassments of her own and trying to build a professional persona in her new surroundings.

Fairly straight forward plot, yes? No. There’s a twist. And it’s a twist with substance. This book has an unexpected gravitas about it. For starters, when was the last time you read a mystery/suspense that frequently references Audre Lorde or bell hooks? Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to think on it. . .You can’t think of one, right? Well, if you like your suspense with a healthy dose of inter-sectional radical feminist canon, this is the suspense novel for you! What a lovely surprise. But that’s not the twist. There’s even more substance here. Far more than I bargained for. This book will make you think even as it unnerves you. And that’s all I’ll say because I want you to have the same experience of this book I had. Go on, read this book.