After her mother died, Jane’s father – a scientist and intellectual – moved them off the grid to the Montana woods. It doesn’t bother Jane that she doesn’t go to school, eat junk food, or have friends – because her father tells her it’s the way to live and he’s brilliant, of course. But as she becomes a young woman, she begins to yearn for a more typical life and starts to question if she agrees with her father’s reasons for keeping her sheltered. Still, she is unwavering in her devotion to him, so much so that she unwittingly helps him carry out a paranoia-fueled plan that thrusts her into the “typical” life she has no idea how to navigate.
Coming of age stories where the rose colored glasses are removed don’t typically take place in remote cabins in the woods. That alone made this an interesting one for me. Jane’s father weaponizes her love and innocence to mask his own narcissism, but she can begin to see that now – and she must if she ever wants to figure out what she wants (rather than what she is told to want). I could feel just how complicated untangling these emotions was for Jane, especially as she uncovers the truth about her mother. In the end, it made me wonder if maybe some people really are just too smart for their own good.
4.25 out of 5 stars
Pair with: Lambrusco
Peaches to Apples 