Buried Beneath by Kelly Ann Hopkins
My Rating: ★★★★
I received a copy from Zenith Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Shelly Frank has always lived a carefully crafted perfect life. What no one knows is that behind the doors of the beautiful house she and her mom live in are secrets neither of them wants anyone to know about. You see, Shelly’s mom is a hoarder. The longer that her mother stays in the house, the more she loses touch with reality while Shelly is left to be the parent and the child. Depressed and lonely, Shelly’s life begins to look up when she starts dating Joshua. When Shelly’s deadbeat father sends her a plane ticket to Florida, she discovers the lies her mother has been telling since he left, slowly unraveling the single thread keeping her life together.
I was drawn to this book because one of the characters is a hoarder since I grew up with a parent with the disorder. Kelly Ann Hopkins perfectly captures the stages between not thinking much about it to the realization that not everyone lives this way. In Shelley’s case, she’s quite deeply affected by how she’s been forced to live, especially since trash (old food, magazines, etc) makes up a large portion of what is strewn across their home. Combined with how bad her mother’s disorder has gotten, it is understandable that she’s lonely, frustrated, and counting down the days until she can escape.
Thankfully, her escape comes earlier than expected when she is suddenly contacted by her father. The series of events that follows shows how much Shelly’s mother has lost touch with reality, how much she resents her ex-husband, and extent of denial about how bad her overall situation is. I feel bad for these characters, but I found myself thinking about how if I was in the situation described in the book, I’d be counting down the days until I could get the hell out of dodge too.
I found the characters to be well written and more complex than I was expecting. The only characters I wish were better developed are Joshua and Shelly’s stepmom, but mainly Joshua. He seemed very two dimensional to me and existed under the halo of young love. However, I do think both characters were great as well as very supportive people all around, which is exactly what Shelly needs. That said, I personally didn’t care for Shelly for most of the book. She comes off as very condescending and entitled for the most part. I also think she way she looked down on some others was exactly how she feared others would look at her if they knew about her house. However, I think she’s a great character and I was rooting for her all book long.
I’m also little confused about the eating disorder she has. It seems like she has bulimia, but then she has an ulcer and an eating disorder… but then she doesn’t have an eating disorder while she has one. It’s not exactly clear, at least to me, but I do think that if you have an ED or are in recovery, this might not be a book for you because the disordered eating that occurs will be triggering.
All in all, I think this is a great book, and I’m looking forward to checking out the author’s other publications.
