The Alone Time
The Alone Time
By: Elle Marr
[Fulfilled ‘Book set in the woods or the mountains’ for Shelf Reflection’s 2024 Reading Challenge]
“In war, often the first strike is best, when the prey is still unaware of the imminent danger.”
Last summer I read Marr’s book The Family Bones which was about a family of psychopaths. The Alone Time also deals with a family, but the vibe is more mystery and trauma about the past than surviving in the present.
Both books are compelling and fast reads. The Alone Time probably doesn’t have as much action as The Family Bones, but it doesn’t really feel like that when you read it.
It also has a disturbing/haunting kind of tone to the story that I think threw off some readers about what they were reading. The story is a little out there, I believe intentionally, so go into it without trying to hold Marr to a completely realistic unraveling. Let it do its thing.
The main characters are Violet and Fiona, sisters. (Ironically, I just finished The Garden Girls which also features two characters with these names.)
Violet and Fiona, though now a bit estranged, are bonded by a traumatic experience from their childhood:
“I survived a plane crash that took the lives of my parents, that left me and my younger sister, Violet, to fend for ourselves for months.”
The pair (13 and 7 at the time) survived Olympic National Forest after their small plane, piloted by their father, crashed on the way to Canada for a family trip.
Since then, they both grew up and dealt with their trauma in different ways. Violet has battled drug and alcohol abuse and general aimlessness in life though now picking up writing again.
Fiona is part of the art scene making sculptures with organic materials:
“As my art dealer likes to promote my pieces: the tangible manifestation of trauma using the very source of trauma itself— nature. I’ll never be more than one of the girl-survivors, and I’ll never be allowed to work through my trauma on my own terms, via my sculptures. All they or I will ever be is an object of fascination and fear.”
It’s been 25 years since ‘The Alone Time’ but when a woman becomes breaking news claiming to be their father’s mistress the months leading up to the crash, the case of their parents’ deaths that was never closed has new energy, a pursuit of more answers as to what really happened out in the woods.
A filmmaker set on making a name for himself with a tell-all documentary is hounding the girls to tell their story, to tell the truth about what happened out there. Did their parents actually die on impact like they’ve always claimed? Or did they survive that first night and potentially more?
The formatting of the book is all first person POVs from alternating viewpoints of the four family members.
Janet and Henry (the parents) have chapters from ‘the wild.’ Fiona and Violet have chapters in both the past and the present. We also get snippets from the notebook Violet wrote in while they were stranded.
Elle Marr does a really good job of making you second guess what happened and who is really the dangerous person. They all have motives or suspicious behaviors. There was one reveal that I had figured out shortly before it was revealed and I thought it was an excellent twist!
Janet’s motive is the infidelity she has recently discovered about her husband who has largely been absent and selfish both as a husband and a father.
Henry’s motive his is life with a different woman whom he had asked to meet at a special spot on this trip. He also battles severe PTSD from his military career that often leaves him disoriented.
From Henry’s chapter he observes:
“Fiona’s emotions have pivoted from sobs to anger within seconds. Violet has remained stoic even through quiet tears. Which reaction is the more appropriate one, given the horror scene we all stumbled on? Could one of my kids actually be responsible for their mother’s death?”
And then we have Violet in the wild saying ‘the woman is back’ and we might have someone else out there with a motive to kill her mother.
I really enjoyed this book. I found it hard to put down.
I am a little surprised by some of the poor reviews of this book.
There are a few things that I agree didn’t make enough sense:
That the sisters would be too worried about the case being re-investigated because I don’t think there could have been enough evidence to lead to any sort of conviction plus they were minors at the time and it’s been so long that I feel like any retribution wouldn’t have been too harsh. Also does seem odd that the woman would just now be coming forward with information— that trigger makes sense for what comes after it, but the ‘pushing’ of the trigger is absent.
One reviewer commented on Violet’s poor spelling in her journal and I would agree with this, though I know my seven-year-old is quite advanced for her ability to spell. At the same time, though, I don’t think I minded it too much because it just drove home that Violet was a fragile little girl having to grow up to fast.
The ‘deal’ with Violet and Wes seemed like a weak addition that either should have been removed or should have been played up more. It was too little that it just felt confusing and out of nowhere.
I’m still not entirely sure how they survived for how long they did or that they weren’t rescued sooner. But I understand that’s a bit beside the point.
Overall though, I guess I disagree with the reviewers who complain about the logic and the out-there aspect of it. It is a bit of a crazy story. So is The Family Bones. I think Marr just likes to write about insane or disturbing types of scenarios.
This isn’t really meant to be a book where you can picture it happening in real life. It’s not meant to be an academic discourse on mental health. It’s also not necessarily to endear you to the characters.
It’s a thriller that is meant to be mysterious, to freak you out a bit, and to cycle through mistrust and wondering about each of the characters.
Marr says in her own Goodreads review of it: “This story was influenced by my wildest dreams and nightmares”
And that’s how I read it.
Also I really like the title. It’s an eerie reference and very fitting with the tale.
Recommendation
When a book has a ‘what really happened in the past’ premise with flashbacks, I am always leery if the reveal will be worth the anticipation. I do feel like this one holds up.
Sure, if you’re the type that wants to read stories you may find in the newspaper, this probably isn’t the one for you. But if you have a little bit more imagination and are willing to let it be what it is, I think you’ll enjoy it.
This seems to be a hit or miss book for people, but there really wasn’t anything that stuck out to me to be annoying or jarring me out of the story. It was compelling from start to finish and I would recommend it.
[Content Advisory: couple handfuls of f-words, a few s-words, one very brief sexual encounter that doesn’t go very far]
**Received an ARC via Over the River PR in exchange for an honest review**
This book releases May 1, 2024. You can pre-order/order a copy of this book using my affiliate link below.
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