“That’s not fair!”
These may be the words of a child, but fairness and justice are values that humans never outgrow. From middle class workers paying social security tax on every dollar looking at millionaires only paying on a portion of their incomes, to sports fans scrutinizing refs whose calls seem to favor the other team, to high school students watching their sports-playing classmates get favors they don’t, there are unlevel playing fields everywhere. But perhaps no field is as obviously tilted as the one where men and women play. From Biblical times till now, men are prioritized and deferred to. Many cultures only consider men as leaders and expect women to obey them completely. Even in western countries, where the “Me Too” movement once held great promise for women’s justice, have seen backsliding in their attempts toward equality. In the U.S., the gradual release of the Epstein files reveals a justice system that puts the needs of wealthy and powerful men above their victims and the country as a whole.
Sometimes fiction offers the only release.
In her latest thriller, Served Him Right, bestselling author Lisa Unger offers readers a chance to get even. Advertising exec Paul is a known lech, abusing co-workers and girlfriends and always getting away with it. But after he breaks up with Ana Blacksmith, he’s found buried in a shallow grave in the park. Then Ana’s best friend Iggy becomes deathly ill after a brunch where Ana prepared food. Is Ana an out-of-control killer? Or did Paul’s cruel past finally catch up with him?
Ana is a firecracker of a character. We meet her at the brunch she planned, an “ex-orcism” of Paul where her sister Vera and all their friends will be deleting Paul from their social media and blocking him on their phones. After Paul is found dead, Ana’s life gets even more complicated: The detective investigating her, Timothy, is a recent hook-up of hers that she met on an app for one-night stands.
Served Him Right is a cornucopia of a book. There are multiple points-of-view: Ana, Vera, Timothy, Iggy, Vera’s daughter Coraline, and probably others I can’t remember. Ana’s backstory is incredibly complicated, and involves so many characters that readers may want to take notes as the story progresses. After their mother was jailed for killing their abusive father, Vera and Ana were raised by their aunt Agnes, who was an herbalist that grew a “poison garden” in their backyard. Years after Agnes’s death, the sisters are involved in “The Cove,” a group of women who utilize their knowledge of plants and herbs in ways that were once considered magic.
There’s a lot going on here, and while every plot element was entertaining, reading the book may feel like the literary equivalent of eating Thanksgiving dinner. The justice themes, the witchy portions, the back stories, Coraline’s friendships… it was a little too much for me, and I wished Unger had concentrated on just one element and saved others for subsequent books.
With a title like Served Him Right, though, it’s clear which element Unger thought was most important. And perhaps by adding in the poison garden, she’s sending an additional message. Too bad she didn’t include instructions for growing wolfsbane.
Thanks to Megan Beatie Communications for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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