All's Well

I was looking for some new spooky books to launch the Halloween season. This didn't end up fitting the criteria, though it had some fun moments. I'm a former theater kid so a book about the theater is always a treat.

Horror should have some spookiness, tap into primal fears in some way. All's Well is more about vanity, self-involvement, and the general disappointment of reaching middle age and realizing your life didn't work out how you wanted. Nothing too exotic, nothing from beyond or beneath or even deep within. Certainly relatable though.

No matter how much we should feel for someone suffering chronic pain, Miranda's first person narration is tedious at the start. Clearly, Awad wants us to be annoyed with Miranda, mirroring her friends', ex's, and colleagues' experience in dealing with her. This setup takes up much of the first quarter of the book. I wasn't sure I would make it through.

When the supernatural element of the plot kicks in, All's Well starts to really cook. Her neurosis and paranoia (everyone is suspicious of her, thinking about her all the time, right?) ratchet up several notches. It's a real page-turner at this point as her theater production, the smiting of her enemies, and her love life all go her way. Her life improves at the expense of other people and yet she's experiencing a protracted nervous breakdown. All we need now is a surprising but inevitable conclusion, right?

Just when you're expecting this to build into something spectacular, some darkly humorous climax, all the conflicts are gently washed away. Awad decides to back off what was set up early on, which is a shame because it had some genuine tension and absurd moments that were almost funny in their extremity.