Too reliant on current tools - text, iphone, lingo - that will become dated with the passage of time. Which is unfortunate, because the theme and narrative, when devoid of these crutches, could be timeless. ( )

Stewart O'Nan is an author I usually enjoy, but I didn't find this to be one of his better books. There are several narrators and/or pov characters who tell the story of a murdered teenage girl. The primary narrator is Marie, the younger sister of Angel, the teenage girl who with her boyfriend Myles murdered Birdie, another teenage girl. Most of the story is told from the perspective of teenage girls, although Marie and Angel's mother Carol also plays a part. The motive for the murder was ostensibly jealousy: Angel was jealous of Birdie and possessive of Myles, who was fooling around with Birdie on the side. However, we never get much of a glimpse into the mind of Angel. She was a good student, held down a part time job, and while her mother Carol was overworked and sometimes neglectful, she was never abusive and was doing the best she could. So I had a hard time being convinced that Angel had the personality and motivation to turn murderous.

The book was interesting for its depiction of life among working class families of Portuguese descent in Rhodesia Island. There's a lot about the lives and habits of teenagers on the cusp of adulthood in this milieu, which I was less interested in, although this was enough to keep me reading. Nevertheless I don't consider it a particularly successful book due to my failure to be convinced that Angel would actually murder someone.

2 stars ( )

From the opening sentence of Ocean State by Stewart O’Nan we know that we are going to be reading about a murder, but this book is not a thriller or a mystery. Instead it is an exploration of relationships, those between mothers and daughters, those between sisters and those between teenagers who believe they are in love.

Angel and Marie Oliviera live with their mother, a nurse in a seniors care home who earns enough to keep them modestly. Angel has been dating Miles Parish for three years. Miles comes from a wealthy family and Angel is well aware that next year, when Miles goes to college she will probably lose him to a rich girl. But they are together for their senior year and Angel is hoping for something to happen that will keep them together. Unfortunately what Angel doesn’t know is that Miles is cheating on her another senior, Birdy Alves. Birdy has fallen hard for Miles. What is never revealed to my satisfaction is what makes Miles so irresistible as to me he seemed rather boring. When Birdy and Miles are exposed, Angel sees red and vows to get revenge upon Birdy. What follows is the story of how the Oliviera and Alves families fall apart when they have to deal with what happens.

I am a big fan of this author but would have to say that Ocean State isn’t one of his best. Don’t get me wrong it is still an excellent read as this author excels at capturing the lives of working class people. The narrative is told from a number of viewpoints all of which rang true, the voices of Marie, Angel, Birdy and Angel’s mother, Carol felt spot-on and drew me into really caring about these people. What remains unclear to me is exactly what O’Nan was trying to show us with this story of obsessive love, adultery and murder. ( )

This is a painful story on all levels. I so appreciated all of the different points of view in these women’s/young girl’s lives and Stewart O’Nan’s brilliant writing made me feel all of the emotion with them. The town in Rhode Island is almost a character in itself - depressed, hope starved and struggling. The obsessiveness, possessiveness and desperation that exists for these girls is palpable and scary sad - and the worst part is that it’s all very true to real life. ( )

Right away it starts that there's been a murder and you're hearing from the perspective of Marie, who is the killer's younger sister. From the beginning, the story unfolds of what happened and what exactly lead up to Angel killing Birdy. It's told from the perspectives of Carol (Angel & Marie's Mother), Angel (the killer), Birdy (the victim), and Marie (Angel's little sister).
What happens is that Angel and Birdy both love the same guy. They both have intense and strong feelings for him. Angel and Myles are together in a relationship when Myles starts cheating on her with Birdy and Birdy is also cheating on a guy she's kind of boyfriend/girlfriend with too. So there's cheating by more than one party happening in the story and Marie is having issues with her self-confidence, self-image, and wanting to be cooler like her big sister and feeling neglected too. Angel and Marie's mother, Carol, has issues, which cause her to not be the best or most present with her daughters and their father is absent as their parents have been divorced for a while.
Angel has a temper and anger issues and she gets very upset when she finds out about Myles and Birdy and that he's been cheating on her. She threatens Birdy and Birdy is confused because she thought Myles was going to be with her. There's a lot of emotional upheaval, drama, and stress for all of them though Myles is the one who doesn't seem to be very assertive or active but more someone who's sitting and letting things happen as they will to him or around him and letting Angel boss him around quite a bit too.
At any rate, there's a point in the story where Angel threatens Birdy and beats her up - that's where I thought the murder was going to happen when I was listening, but it didn't. Then as I continued listening, the story and the situations just get worse, and then there's a bit of a surprise twist when it finally comes to when, where, and how the murder happens. That's what really got to me is when the murder happens and then how they just keep going on about their lives like nothing happened until the police show up with a search warrant to check Angel's things and arrest her.
In the end, the punishments were not what I would've felt was enough for the taking of a life, and oh this story really got to me and got me going. The narrator made this story that much more interesting, drew me in, and kept me on the edge of my seat listening intently. She did an amazing job performing each of the characters' voices so that it was easy to tell them apart and get a good feel for each character, their role, and personality. It was an awesome and immersive experience listening to this audiobook that was so well done. It sucked me in and had me feeling like I was in this other world where the story was happening.
I highly recommend getting and checking this audiobook out if you're looking for a great listening experience with a fantastic narrator and an intense story. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for letting me listen and review this ALC. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ( )