What the Reader Knows...

Laura Lippman’s What the Dead Know may or may not be a “good” novel, but I believe that it was an entertaining and easy read. At times, the plot seemed to be a bit confusing but it was entertaining. I still don’t quite understand how Sunny is Heather or how Heather is Sunny but in all fairness, this made the plot interesting. I believe that the most interesting character in the novel is the person that we know least about: Heather. I say this because we really don’t know if the Sunny/Heather character is an honest character (as stated in class) which makes me want to know more about her. Even so, she shouldn’t be blamed for the things that she is going through throughout the novel because I do believe the idea that she has been scarred and she can’t really trust anyone (which is probably why she lies so bad). Its difficult to actually form a connection or fondness to any of the characters because the novel seems so random and all over the place. That’s the major defect I find in the novel: I can’t really connect with any of the characters. Miriam just seems indifferent and separated, Dave is just weird, and Heather is just a selfish person. Lippman doesn’t really give us much personality of the other characters, so I can’t really form an opinion on them. I wonder if that was Lippman’s intent. If this is so, then she really shouldn’t be winning major awards for novels such as this one.