By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: Rob Santana is an expert at writing the unexpected.
The Oscar Goes To features the titular awards ceremony interrupted by the Best Actress Winner’s on air suicide. Little Blue Eyes turns a potentially heartwarming story about a woman taking in an abandoned baby into a thriller about addiction, racism, and human trafficking. Even real people like Adolf Hitler and Jane Austen are taken to strange unexpected dimensions. When you read one of Santana's books you don't know what will happen. All you do know is that it won't be anything like the book that you thought it was going to be at the beginning.
His latest novel, Freeze Frame, starts out as a quirky romantic comedy drama that builds into a psychological crime thriller and gives you enough time to appreciate the transition.
Future filmmaker, Kim Poynter loves taking videos of the people around him particularly of Nova Muller, the pretty girl from across the street. He's in love with her but since she already has a boyfriend, Zane, he settles into the friend zone, for now. He is preparing to record Nova’s brother's wedding during the time that both he and Nova discover some horrible secrets about their families. The suspicion and tension from these secrets build until the wedding when Kim happens to capture a crime that will change his and Nova's lives forever.
Freeze Frame is the type of book that has a slow build up before it reaches the climax. If done right, it can be a benefit by letting one get to know the characters and the conflicts. If done wrong, it can be a sluggish detriment as the Reader waits for something exciting to happen. Santana does it right. He allows us to understand his characters, particularly Kim and Nova, and see them as rich vibrant people before their worlds fall apart around them.
Kim struggles with his own ambitions and expectations from his family. He has an eye for film and is interested in capturing the world around him. It is how he expresses himself by measuring every camera angle, preparing every shot, and making his work into works of cinematic art even if they are weddings, parties, and every day events. They aren't ordinary to him. They allow him to understand the people that he is recording and allow them to recognize his dedication.
Kim's materialistic parents however are not supportive of his drive. They want to know why he isn't more interested in earning money and making investments. Look at them. They put their money into Lehman Brothers and that is certainly “too big to fail.” Right? (This book is set in the late 2000’s before the financial crisis.)
Besides his parent's lack of financial foresight, they are also having marital troubles. Kim captures a compromising situation involving his parents and it changes their relationship forever.
Kim captures videos because for him they symbolize perfection. If he doesn't like something he can edit it or change it. The negative parts can be removed. Unfortunately, that cannot happen after he puts the camera down. He has to deal with real life with all of its complications, messiness, and hypocrisy.
Nova is the opposite of Kim in many ways. Kim uses his camera to create a fanciful perfect world, but Nova uses herself. She acts like the smart attractive girl next door. The Miss Everything who is going places. What everyone thinks that they see is a brilliant beautiful good girl. What they don't see is a troubled young woman with a suspicious nature, a surly attitude, and complicated relationships with those around her.
She doesn't get along with her father who is overprotective of her in ways that could veer towards inappropriate. There is a bond that at times might be loving but can also be suffocating even threatening.
Their relationship gets progressively worse throughout the book until it completely deteriorates in a way that is sad but inevitable.
Nova also doesn't like her future sister in law at all. Her only supporter is her brother and even that will soon change. Her relationship with Zane is crumbling. He can be incredibly possessive and verbally abusive. Nova has some serious emotional issues that need working through and her friendship with Kim gives her the chance to be honest.
The build-up of Kim and Nova's “will they won't they” potential relationship is a quirky romantic comedy drama, the story of two misfits, that are two-thirds of a love triangle and are from dysfunctional families, that find their way to each other. Then it takes a 180 degree turn and this sweet and cute potential romance is not so sweet or cute.
Things occur that cause them to question their relationships with friends, family, and each other. One or more secrets are brought forward and a violent act is committed. This violent act spirals the book into a thriller. Kim records it and has to weigh whether to reveal it to the authorities and how to hide it from nefarious people who want it to stay private.
The characterization that was present at the beginning gives way more to plot. But since the Reader has gotten to know Kim and Nova, that makes their situation more dire and the conflicts surrounding them more pronounced. They are left with some difficult choices to make and either way could result in more difficulties. They are hard choices but once made are clearly understood because of what we had experienced with the characters beforehand.
Freeze Frame captures a memorable quirky romance turned crime thriller. It is the picture of an excellent read and is among Santana's best.
No comments:
Post a Comment