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Unbecoming
On the grubby outskirts of Paris, Grace restores bric-a-brac, mends teapots, re-sets gems. She calls herself Julie, says she’s from California, and slips back to a rented room at night. Regularly, furtively, she checks the hometown paper on the Internet. Home is Garland, Tennessee, and there, two young men have just been paroled. One, she married; the other, she’s in love with. Both were jailed for a crime that Grace herself planned in exacting detail. The heist went bad—but not before she was on a plane to Prague with a stolen canvas rolled in her bag. And so, in Paris, begins a cat-and-mouse waiting game as Grace’s web of deception and lies unravels—and she becomes another young woman entirely.
Unbecoming is an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel that turns on suspense and slippery identity. With echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Scherm’s mesmerizing debut is sure to entrance fans of Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, and Donna Tartt.
Unbecoming is an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel that turns on suspense and slippery identity. With echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith, Rebecca Scherm’s mesmerizing debut is sure to entrance fans of Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, and Donna Tartt.
308 pages, Hardcover
First published January 22, 2015
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14.3k people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Scherm
8 books207 followersRebecca Scherm is the author of two novels: UNBECOMING and the forthcoming A HOUSE BETWEEN EARTH AND THE MOON (March 2022). She lives in California.
Find her on Instagram: rebecca_scherm_books
and Twitter @SchermUndDrang
Find her on Instagram: rebecca_scherm_books
and Twitter @SchermUndDrang
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,167 reviews
August 12, 2018
3.5
this book is a little cocktail mix of Gone Girl and The Goldfinch with a little garnish of The Talented Mr. Ripley. but it lacks the sociopathic oomph of gg or ripley and, well, it's not written by donna tartt. but despite the snouts of influence poking up here and there, it has things that are all its own, and it's a good read for those original elements, even if the ones i appreciated most were details about the character and not necessarily things that were driving the plot.
but yes - plot. this is about a woman in her early twenties named grace from smalltown tennessee who is hiding out in france under the assumed name of julie, working as a restorer of jewelry and other trinkets for a shady small company and living in fear that her past will catch up with her. because grace is herself a bit shady. three years earlier, she masterminded an art heist back home that landed two of her friends in jail, while she got off scot-free. today is the day that they are being paroled, and she has no idea what happens to her now that they are free. one of these "friends" is riley - a boy she has been in a relationship with since she was twelve years old, and had secretly married before the heist. the other is alls, for whom she harbors complicated and reciprocated romantic feelings. and yet, even before they were both caught, tried, and imprisoned, she has had no contact with either of them, running off to another country with one of the stolen paintings, feigning innocence and relying on her strengths of lying and self-deception to get by.
the story is split between julie-in-france and grace-that-was. the grace storyline is the more interesting one, to me, because we see how she became what she is, and the coming-of-age story is much more relatable than the criminal-on-the-lam.
yes, there are comparisons to Gone Girl, but amy dunne would pick her teeth with this girl. the comparisons begin and end with a character who has an adaptable personality, who can become who she needs to appear to be in order to get what she wants. and despite grace's childhood lies and casual theft, there's still something endearing and vulnerable to her, because what she wants is love and family.
her family life isn't terrible, but after a rocky start where her parents separated and she was shuffled about, they reunited and suddenly she had baby twin brothers, upon whom her parents lavished all their affection. grace assumes that her parents love her less than her brothers because she has bad thoughts, bad impulses.
It wasn't Grace's fault that she was a bad apple. It wasn't anyone's fault, but it did explain a lot of her feelings, her secret thoughts. Being rotten was like being poor, but in your heart. Nothing to be done. You get what you get and you don't get upset.
largely unsupervised, grace met riley graham when she was in the sixth grade and fell in love with him and his family, particularly with riley's mother. the grahams are well-off, educated, cultured, and very glamorous to grace. riley has three older brothers, and their house is full of noise, commotion, affection - everything grace wants. so she watches, and she learns, and she insinuates herself into the family, through the doorway of riley, and becomes the daughter mrs. riley always wanted.
she struggles to reinvent herself because she doesn't want the grahams to see her for what she feels she is - a bad girl.
You could be bad and still be a good girl, if you tried hard enough. She hadn't tried hard enough before.
but now there is incentive to try.
Riley made it easy for Grace to be good…The Grahams had given her a chance, and she was eager to show them that she could be worthy of their love. They treated Grace as if she belonged to them, and so did Riley, and she devoted herself to earning her keep. She left her frantic, lonely childhood behind to become the Grahams' daughter and Riley's dream girl, silky haired and shyly smiling. She knew to go wherever she was wanted.
she loses her virginity to riley when she is thirteen and moves in with the grahams at sixteen. and while she loves riley in her own way, it comes from a place of relief; love as rescue: She couldn't believe her luck that Riley wanted her, but she was grateful, and she loved him for it.
but her real love is for mrs. graham. not in a sexual way, but in an equally desperate and hungering way. to be her daughter, to be her. she tries on mrs. graham's clothes and makeup and pretends to be her in the mirror.
She sometimes fantasized a whole childhood as one of them - Grace Graham, the daughter Mrs. Graham had wanted - though she couldn't tell Riley this without making it sound as though she wished she were his sister.
and all of this is encouraged by riley's family. their eventual marriage is a foregone conclusion, and they treat her like an adopted daughter - mr. graham calls grace "your girl" to his wife, and mrs. graham takes grace to buy her first bra, watches old movies curled up on the couch with her, and has her try on her own wedding dress, while she clutched at Grace like a long-awaited gift.
and for this, grace will become what is expected of a daughter of the illustrious grahams.
They might not have been able to change their natures, but she could hide hers. She would have to.
and she will become what riley expects, as well.
Later, when his friends had gone home, he told her that she'd embarrassed him. He framed his argument generously: "Quit trying to be a guy," he said. "You don't have to fake it. Just be yourself."
She wasn't faking it, she started to explain. She was just -
"But I don't like you like that," he said.
Just-be-yourself had its limits. She adapted to his vision. She liked that girl more than she had ever liked herself before anyway, so that was the self she became.
she loves and admires riley, supports his artistic temperament and takes comfort in their shared history. she knows everything about him and she allows herself to be shadowed by him, where she can hide out in the role of that famous gone girl "cool girl."
and then she goes to new york. and everything changes.
i realize i am going on and on and on here, so i will try to be brief, even though this is the most interesting part, to me. in new york, she is exposed to entirely new experiences that change her forever. most importantly, she finds that she is not so unusual in pretending to be someone she isn't. pasts are whitewashed, pretensions are accepted without question, and everything's about surface presentation. she learns the importance of clothing as camouflage, as armor. in addition to this, she discovers that some people are not only unashamed of their dark sides and impulses, but celebrate them, turning them into art. she is also exposed to true wealth.
she studies art history and gets a job as an art appraiser's assistant. she lies about her past, saying that riley is studying at the sorbonne and that his mother is dying of breast cancer. she reinvents herself once again, transforming into a knowledgeable participant in the art scene and soaking it all in like a sponge. she still loves riley, but she begins to come into her own, no longer interested in hiding behind his familiar charisma. when she returns home for thanksgiving, she becomes that insufferable college student returning to what she sees as her quaint, provincial hometown. she criticizes riley's art as mere craftsmanship, technically competent, but lacking in vision. she spouts baudrillard at him, trying to inspire him into becoming edgy and important.
grace's transition in new york makes me wince, but it is perfectly rendered.
lots more stuff happens after this, but i've gone on way too long already. there's homecoming and heist and aftermath, romantic entanglements, grace getting herself into increasingly horrible situations which she endures, dead-eyed, and a pretty satisfying little fillip of a coda.
as a character study, this is really successful. i was much less interested in the heist itself (although it was very clever) and everything that happened once she became julie. but this is an author i will definitely keep an eye on, because the things she does well she does very very well, and i think she has a lot more in her.
come to my blog!
this book is a little cocktail mix of Gone Girl and The Goldfinch with a little garnish of The Talented Mr. Ripley. but it lacks the sociopathic oomph of gg or ripley and, well, it's not written by donna tartt. but despite the snouts of influence poking up here and there, it has things that are all its own, and it's a good read for those original elements, even if the ones i appreciated most were details about the character and not necessarily things that were driving the plot.
but yes - plot. this is about a woman in her early twenties named grace from smalltown tennessee who is hiding out in france under the assumed name of julie, working as a restorer of jewelry and other trinkets for a shady small company and living in fear that her past will catch up with her. because grace is herself a bit shady. three years earlier, she masterminded an art heist back home that landed two of her friends in jail, while she got off scot-free. today is the day that they are being paroled, and she has no idea what happens to her now that they are free. one of these "friends" is riley - a boy she has been in a relationship with since she was twelve years old, and had secretly married before the heist. the other is alls, for whom she harbors complicated and reciprocated romantic feelings. and yet, even before they were both caught, tried, and imprisoned, she has had no contact with either of them, running off to another country with one of the stolen paintings, feigning innocence and relying on her strengths of lying and self-deception to get by.
the story is split between julie-in-france and grace-that-was. the grace storyline is the more interesting one, to me, because we see how she became what she is, and the coming-of-age story is much more relatable than the criminal-on-the-lam.
yes, there are comparisons to Gone Girl, but amy dunne would pick her teeth with this girl. the comparisons begin and end with a character who has an adaptable personality, who can become who she needs to appear to be in order to get what she wants. and despite grace's childhood lies and casual theft, there's still something endearing and vulnerable to her, because what she wants is love and family.
her family life isn't terrible, but after a rocky start where her parents separated and she was shuffled about, they reunited and suddenly she had baby twin brothers, upon whom her parents lavished all their affection. grace assumes that her parents love her less than her brothers because she has bad thoughts, bad impulses.
It wasn't Grace's fault that she was a bad apple. It wasn't anyone's fault, but it did explain a lot of her feelings, her secret thoughts. Being rotten was like being poor, but in your heart. Nothing to be done. You get what you get and you don't get upset.
largely unsupervised, grace met riley graham when she was in the sixth grade and fell in love with him and his family, particularly with riley's mother. the grahams are well-off, educated, cultured, and very glamorous to grace. riley has three older brothers, and their house is full of noise, commotion, affection - everything grace wants. so she watches, and she learns, and she insinuates herself into the family, through the doorway of riley, and becomes the daughter mrs. riley always wanted.
she struggles to reinvent herself because she doesn't want the grahams to see her for what she feels she is - a bad girl.
You could be bad and still be a good girl, if you tried hard enough. She hadn't tried hard enough before.
but now there is incentive to try.
Riley made it easy for Grace to be good…The Grahams had given her a chance, and she was eager to show them that she could be worthy of their love. They treated Grace as if she belonged to them, and so did Riley, and she devoted herself to earning her keep. She left her frantic, lonely childhood behind to become the Grahams' daughter and Riley's dream girl, silky haired and shyly smiling. She knew to go wherever she was wanted.
she loses her virginity to riley when she is thirteen and moves in with the grahams at sixteen. and while she loves riley in her own way, it comes from a place of relief; love as rescue: She couldn't believe her luck that Riley wanted her, but she was grateful, and she loved him for it.
but her real love is for mrs. graham. not in a sexual way, but in an equally desperate and hungering way. to be her daughter, to be her. she tries on mrs. graham's clothes and makeup and pretends to be her in the mirror.
She sometimes fantasized a whole childhood as one of them - Grace Graham, the daughter Mrs. Graham had wanted - though she couldn't tell Riley this without making it sound as though she wished she were his sister.
and all of this is encouraged by riley's family. their eventual marriage is a foregone conclusion, and they treat her like an adopted daughter - mr. graham calls grace "your girl" to his wife, and mrs. graham takes grace to buy her first bra, watches old movies curled up on the couch with her, and has her try on her own wedding dress, while she clutched at Grace like a long-awaited gift.
and for this, grace will become what is expected of a daughter of the illustrious grahams.
They might not have been able to change their natures, but she could hide hers. She would have to.
and she will become what riley expects, as well.
Later, when his friends had gone home, he told her that she'd embarrassed him. He framed his argument generously: "Quit trying to be a guy," he said. "You don't have to fake it. Just be yourself."
She wasn't faking it, she started to explain. She was just -
"But I don't like you like that," he said.
Just-be-yourself had its limits. She adapted to his vision. She liked that girl more than she had ever liked herself before anyway, so that was the self she became.
she loves and admires riley, supports his artistic temperament and takes comfort in their shared history. she knows everything about him and she allows herself to be shadowed by him, where she can hide out in the role of that famous gone girl "cool girl."
and then she goes to new york. and everything changes.
i realize i am going on and on and on here, so i will try to be brief, even though this is the most interesting part, to me. in new york, she is exposed to entirely new experiences that change her forever. most importantly, she finds that she is not so unusual in pretending to be someone she isn't. pasts are whitewashed, pretensions are accepted without question, and everything's about surface presentation. she learns the importance of clothing as camouflage, as armor. in addition to this, she discovers that some people are not only unashamed of their dark sides and impulses, but celebrate them, turning them into art. she is also exposed to true wealth.
she studies art history and gets a job as an art appraiser's assistant. she lies about her past, saying that riley is studying at the sorbonne and that his mother is dying of breast cancer. she reinvents herself once again, transforming into a knowledgeable participant in the art scene and soaking it all in like a sponge. she still loves riley, but she begins to come into her own, no longer interested in hiding behind his familiar charisma. when she returns home for thanksgiving, she becomes that insufferable college student returning to what she sees as her quaint, provincial hometown. she criticizes riley's art as mere craftsmanship, technically competent, but lacking in vision. she spouts baudrillard at him, trying to inspire him into becoming edgy and important.
grace's transition in new york makes me wince, but it is perfectly rendered.
lots more stuff happens after this, but i've gone on way too long already. there's homecoming and heist and aftermath, romantic entanglements, grace getting herself into increasingly horrible situations which she endures, dead-eyed, and a pretty satisfying little fillip of a coda.
as a character study, this is really successful. i was much less interested in the heist itself (although it was very clever) and everything that happened once she became julie. but this is an author i will definitely keep an eye on, because the things she does well she does very very well, and i think she has a lot more in her.
come to my blog!
July 9, 2015
Unbecoming comes with one of those blurbs that make me feel a bit sorry for the book and the author, because there was - and I did say this when I first mentioned it (in my what to read in 2015 blog post) - absolutely no way the book was ever going to live up to it. It's described as 'an intricately plotted and psychologically nuanced heist novel', 'with echoes of Alfred Hitchcock and Patricia Highsmith', 'sure to entrance fans of Gillian Flynn, Marisha Pessl, and Donna Tartt'. Even one of these comparisons would have caught my attention: the combination of ALL of them, while clearly hyperbolic, nevertheless made me hopeful that it would be a debut novel of the highest calibre.
The set-up, too, is interesting. The book opens with the protagonist, Grace, living in Paris, where she makes a living mending antiques. It's immediately clear something is amiss: Grace tells her Paris acquaintances she is called Julie, pretends to be from California rather than Tennessee, and is preoccupied by the imminent release from prison of 'the boys' back home. Home is a small town called Garland, and the boys are Riley, Grace's ex-boyfriend, and his stupidly-named best friend Alls. They were sentenced to three years for robbing a local museum called the Wynne House, and Grace tantalisingly claims that she 'had robbed the Wynne House too, and could not go home again'; she has 'left lies unleashed in Garland'. 'Grace could have only one friend at a time. Any more and it became harder to keep track of how they knew her, what she had told them, which pieces went where.' When it's stated just a few pages later that Grace was in fact already in Europe on the day of the robbery, the stage is set for a fascinating unravelling of lies.
Unfortunately, I really disliked Grace. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I didn't understand her, couldn't get to grips with her. Here I feel compelled to mention, yet again, that I love lots of books with 'unlikeable', morally ambiguous characters at their hearts - in fact I'd go as far as to say I prefer them. But Scherm makes Grace so cold, distant and empty a character that it is impossible to understand her motives, to comprehend her development, to get close to her in any way (and if this is an intentional move, it's a confusing one, because the narrative - though written in third person - sticks to Grace at all times, examining no other points of view). It's all telling and no showing. Neither of the love stories has anything to make it believable, and the different aspects of Grace's character are described but never demonstrated, meaning she's just a jumble of features - as if the first draft of this book had two female protagonists, maybe sisters, and I was reading a second draft, with the two only partly spliced together.
Grace is constantly contradictory. There's this ongoing thing about whether she's a 'good girl' or a 'bad girl', which I found confusing because she's so dull and her horizons so small, she can surely only be the former - all she wants is to get married and live a comfortable life in her home town; to have been, or to act like she could have been, the daughter of Riley's wealthy mother; even in Paris, after everything, she refers to 'what her life should have been - pregnant in America with a Volvo and health insurance'. (A VOLVO.) When she uses a harsh swear word, it's shocking but not in an effective way (there's this whole scene where she thinks - and then breaks down the thought - 'I am Riley's cunt', and it just comes off as embarrassing and made me want to laugh). Her sudden passion for contemporary art, her embarrassment about Riley's paintings of Garland buildings, seems out of sync with her very conservative personality. Her desire for Alls comes out of nowhere; and yes, this is acknowledged in the text, but merely in the sense that she's surprised to feel this way about someone she has known for a long time. There is no deeper examination of the sudden switch from her devotion to Riley to this forbidden lust, which is clearly representative of a lot more than simply the lust itself. Later in the story there's a clumsy reference to . It just doesn't make any sense.
As for the other characters, they are barely fleshed out, and this makes the problems with Grace's character all the more apparent because it places the focus even more specifically on her as the only person in the story you're supposed to care about. Beyond them being generically good-looking, all-American boys, I had no mental image of Riley and Alls whatsoever. Grace's experience of (apparently) having been semi-rejected by her own parents could have been an interesting angle, yet it's brushed off as if it barely matters. It's hard not to see this as simply an all-too-convenient explanation for Grace's desperation to be loved by the Graham family, a justification that neatly fits . It's yet another thing the reader's told about, but never any more than just told.
I also hated the ending.
This has been ceaselessly negative, so I have to try and write something good now. While pretty much everything in Garland was uninteresting to me, I liked the parts that ventured beyond that: Grace's life in Paris, her period as a student in New York and her work for Donald. This last, while not a major part of the plot, was probably the high point for me. The style has a clarity and elegance to it, although I would have preferred more emotion - more messiness, actually. Unbecoming couldn't be described as gripping or compelling, yet it's the kind of book you want to go back to and need to finish, however quietly. I didn't like Grace, but I needed to know how her story would end. So yeah, there were glimmers of goodness in this story, but it isn't really anything like any of those things the blurb compares it to, and it would take a lot of persuasion for me to want to read anything else by this author.
The set-up, too, is interesting. The book opens with the protagonist, Grace, living in Paris, where she makes a living mending antiques. It's immediately clear something is amiss: Grace tells her Paris acquaintances she is called Julie, pretends to be from California rather than Tennessee, and is preoccupied by the imminent release from prison of 'the boys' back home. Home is a small town called Garland, and the boys are Riley, Grace's ex-boyfriend, and his stupidly-named best friend Alls. They were sentenced to three years for robbing a local museum called the Wynne House, and Grace tantalisingly claims that she 'had robbed the Wynne House too, and could not go home again'; she has 'left lies unleashed in Garland'. 'Grace could have only one friend at a time. Any more and it became harder to keep track of how they knew her, what she had told them, which pieces went where.' When it's stated just a few pages later that Grace was in fact already in Europe on the day of the robbery, the stage is set for a fascinating unravelling of lies.
Unfortunately, I really disliked Grace. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I didn't understand her, couldn't get to grips with her. Here I feel compelled to mention, yet again, that I love lots of books with 'unlikeable', morally ambiguous characters at their hearts - in fact I'd go as far as to say I prefer them. But Scherm makes Grace so cold, distant and empty a character that it is impossible to understand her motives, to comprehend her development, to get close to her in any way (and if this is an intentional move, it's a confusing one, because the narrative - though written in third person - sticks to Grace at all times, examining no other points of view). It's all telling and no showing. Neither of the love stories has anything to make it believable, and the different aspects of Grace's character are described but never demonstrated, meaning she's just a jumble of features - as if the first draft of this book had two female protagonists, maybe sisters, and I was reading a second draft, with the two only partly spliced together.
Grace is constantly contradictory. There's this ongoing thing about whether she's a 'good girl' or a 'bad girl', which I found confusing because she's so dull and her horizons so small, she can surely only be the former - all she wants is to get married and live a comfortable life in her home town; to have been, or to act like she could have been, the daughter of Riley's wealthy mother; even in Paris, after everything, she refers to 'what her life should have been - pregnant in America with a Volvo and health insurance'. (A VOLVO.) When she uses a harsh swear word, it's shocking but not in an effective way (there's this whole scene where she thinks - and then breaks down the thought - 'I am Riley's cunt', and it just comes off as embarrassing and made me want to laugh). Her sudden passion for contemporary art, her embarrassment about Riley's paintings of Garland buildings, seems out of sync with her very conservative personality. Her desire for Alls comes out of nowhere; and yes, this is acknowledged in the text, but merely in the sense that she's surprised to feel this way about someone she has known for a long time. There is no deeper examination of the sudden switch from her devotion to Riley to this forbidden lust, which is clearly representative of a lot more than simply the lust itself. Later in the story there's a clumsy reference to . It just doesn't make any sense.
As for the other characters, they are barely fleshed out, and this makes the problems with Grace's character all the more apparent because it places the focus even more specifically on her as the only person in the story you're supposed to care about. Beyond them being generically good-looking, all-American boys, I had no mental image of Riley and Alls whatsoever. Grace's experience of (apparently) having been semi-rejected by her own parents could have been an interesting angle, yet it's brushed off as if it barely matters. It's hard not to see this as simply an all-too-convenient explanation for Grace's desperation to be loved by the Graham family, a justification that neatly fits . It's yet another thing the reader's told about, but never any more than just told.
I also hated the ending.
This has been ceaselessly negative, so I have to try and write something good now. While pretty much everything in Garland was uninteresting to me, I liked the parts that ventured beyond that: Grace's life in Paris, her period as a student in New York and her work for Donald. This last, while not a major part of the plot, was probably the high point for me. The style has a clarity and elegance to it, although I would have preferred more emotion - more messiness, actually. Unbecoming couldn't be described as gripping or compelling, yet it's the kind of book you want to go back to and need to finish, however quietly. I didn't like Grace, but I needed to know how her story would end. So yeah, there were glimmers of goodness in this story, but it isn't really anything like any of those things the blurb compares it to, and it would take a lot of persuasion for me to want to read anything else by this author.
September 9, 2015
I don't know what to make of this book or how to describe it. I thought it was a heist thriller, but it's a lot more complicated than that. It's a mixture of a thriller, a psychological character study and a family drama. Truthfully, it's an uneasy marriage of the three; I am not quite sure Scherm successfully pulled it off. I loved it at first and couldn't tear myself away, but it slowly wore me down. By the end, I just wanted to be done with the book and the characters. Blah blah blah....end this...PLEASE.
A 3.5 for me....a gripping debut novel with real promise and intensity, but it goes off in the weeds and doesn't quite deliver at the end.
A 3.5 for me....a gripping debut novel with real promise and intensity, but it goes off in the weeds and doesn't quite deliver at the end.
March 11, 2016
As is very almost always the case, I received this book free in exchange for a review. Despite the kindness of receiving a free book I'm absolutely candid about the book because I want everyone to know what they're getting as much as I hope to when I'm shopping.
The nutshell view of this book is that is is largely a character sketch of a kleptomaniac. The narrative is inverted, starting in the center and winding backwards through the events that led up to the beginning. Then with about 1/3 of the book remaining the narrative begins to proceed forward.
To the positive side, the novel is written in a very literary style. The author's description is vivid and she paints a delightful picture of person and place. She takes two very different worlds and pushes them together in a quite unique way.
To the negative, the characters and the story are profoundly flat. The protagonist is making the same foolish mistakes at the end that she did when she started out. The story takes what seems like a profoundly long time to go a very shot distance. As descriptive as the text is when you come to the end one wonders why all the bother in the first place.
In summary, it took a lot of concentration to bear with this much text on so little actual content and in the end I felt I'd rather wasted my time.
--
Rob Slaven
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatteredthread/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile...
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RobSlave...
WordPress: https://tthread.wordpress.com/
The nutshell view of this book is that is is largely a character sketch of a kleptomaniac. The narrative is inverted, starting in the center and winding backwards through the events that led up to the beginning. Then with about 1/3 of the book remaining the narrative begins to proceed forward.
To the positive side, the novel is written in a very literary style. The author's description is vivid and she paints a delightful picture of person and place. She takes two very different worlds and pushes them together in a quite unique way.
To the negative, the characters and the story are profoundly flat. The protagonist is making the same foolish mistakes at the end that she did when she started out. The story takes what seems like a profoundly long time to go a very shot distance. As descriptive as the text is when you come to the end one wonders why all the bother in the first place.
In summary, it took a lot of concentration to bear with this much text on so little actual content and in the end I felt I'd rather wasted my time.
--
Rob Slaven
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tatteredthread/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile...
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/RobSlave...
WordPress: https://tthread.wordpress.com/
January 23, 2015
So the Unbecoming details the construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction of a girl following a failed heist. Shame that I’m not one for a heist novel because the story’s founding ideas are solid; its flashy plot, however, is not.
What we have is a love story. Grace has a childhood sweetheart whom she intends to love forever until her growing up reveals different, contradictory intentions. She’s faced with a question I ask myself a lot lately: at what age can we finally assume that the person we are is mostly the person we are going to be? And whose decision is it? That is, who decides who we are going to be? Us? Someone else? The blind, unfeeling universe?
Grace learns that when whoever that whomever is makes his decision, it’s impossible to bridge the gap. Gone are the days of one leg firmly sunk in the sands of childhood, the other leg tentatively stepping toward adulthood; Grace is pushed along whether she likes it or not. She tries, like any normal human being, to fight what she’s becoming. And that’s where we get the heist, the much touted thriller element crying out to prospective readers on the back cover. That’s also where the story begins to fail. Once Grace’s largely plotless but entirely typical personal metamorphosis disappears under piles of blueprints, printouts from art auction house websites, and million dollar paintings, the story moves too quickly and loses itself. In life climaxes tend to happen quickly; in books climaxes must unwind slowly and carefully or else the reader’s patience is only briefly, perfunctorily rewarded.
The crazy fast plot befuddles character motivations. Where Grace was once recognizable, indeed pitiable, she is now confusing, unrealistic, and unsympathetic. Author Rebecca Scherm tries to say some great things in Unbecoming, but her choice to pursue a commercial thriller plot foils her attempt. Grace’s love and growing up are justifiably convoluted; unfortunately the heist plot is too.
What we have is a love story. Grace has a childhood sweetheart whom she intends to love forever until her growing up reveals different, contradictory intentions. She’s faced with a question I ask myself a lot lately: at what age can we finally assume that the person we are is mostly the person we are going to be? And whose decision is it? That is, who decides who we are going to be? Us? Someone else? The blind, unfeeling universe?
Grace learns that when whoever that whomever is makes his decision, it’s impossible to bridge the gap. Gone are the days of one leg firmly sunk in the sands of childhood, the other leg tentatively stepping toward adulthood; Grace is pushed along whether she likes it or not. She tries, like any normal human being, to fight what she’s becoming. And that’s where we get the heist, the much touted thriller element crying out to prospective readers on the back cover. That’s also where the story begins to fail. Once Grace’s largely plotless but entirely typical personal metamorphosis disappears under piles of blueprints, printouts from art auction house websites, and million dollar paintings, the story moves too quickly and loses itself. In life climaxes tend to happen quickly; in books climaxes must unwind slowly and carefully or else the reader’s patience is only briefly, perfunctorily rewarded.
The crazy fast plot befuddles character motivations. Where Grace was once recognizable, indeed pitiable, she is now confusing, unrealistic, and unsympathetic. Author Rebecca Scherm tries to say some great things in Unbecoming, but her choice to pursue a commercial thriller plot foils her attempt. Grace’s love and growing up are justifiably convoluted; unfortunately the heist plot is too.
March 4, 2015
I may need to seek out more heist novels, because I ate up Unbecoming like it was dessert. Grace is an American living in Paris, working in antiques repair. Her coworkers know her as Julie from California, but she's actually from Garland, Tennessee. Back home, two men are being paroled after serving time for a crime Grace masterminded.
It's only a matter of time before they catch up to her.
Scherm builds suspense by telling Grace's story out of order, flashing between her calm-on-the-outside life in Paris and her years growing up in Garland. Without the depth of insight into Grace's character, this would have been a light, fun, surface-level read, and I would have enjoyed the pants off it. Instead, I got something even better. I was fascinated by this regular girl turned career criminal and became totally tangled up in the lies she tells and the ways she justifies them to herself.
It takes some authorial sleight of hand to convince a goody-goody like me to root for the bad guy, but that's exactly what I found myself doing with Grace. I wanted her to get away with everything, and I'm not even sure why. I can't say I identified with her, or felt empathy for her, or even particularly liked her. But she was incredibly compelling. I also loved peeking over her shoulder into the world of high-dollar antiques—a topic I've never been remotely interested in, but which grew glamorous and irresistibly shiny through Grace's discerning eyes.
Unbecoming is an unputdownable pleasure from start to finish, dark and fun at the same time.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
It's only a matter of time before they catch up to her.
Scherm builds suspense by telling Grace's story out of order, flashing between her calm-on-the-outside life in Paris and her years growing up in Garland. Without the depth of insight into Grace's character, this would have been a light, fun, surface-level read, and I would have enjoyed the pants off it. Instead, I got something even better. I was fascinated by this regular girl turned career criminal and became totally tangled up in the lies she tells and the ways she justifies them to herself.
It takes some authorial sleight of hand to convince a goody-goody like me to root for the bad guy, but that's exactly what I found myself doing with Grace. I wanted her to get away with everything, and I'm not even sure why. I can't say I identified with her, or felt empathy for her, or even particularly liked her. But she was incredibly compelling. I also loved peeking over her shoulder into the world of high-dollar antiques—a topic I've never been remotely interested in, but which grew glamorous and irresistibly shiny through Grace's discerning eyes.
Unbecoming is an unputdownable pleasure from start to finish, dark and fun at the same time.
More book recommendations by me at www.readingwithhippos.com
May 12, 2015
2.5 stars
Rebecca Scherm's debut novel Unbecoming cannot escape comparison to Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winner The Goldfinch, with the young, morally confused protagonists, the antique restoration/art heist/forgery plot, and the circumnavigated settings (Paris by way of NYC and Garland, Tennessee). Whether a coincidence or by design, it almost seems like a calculated effort by Ms. Scherm to replicate Ms. Tartt's success.
That's not the reason for my middling rating, though. While I liked The Goldfinch plenty, there was ample opportunity to pare the bloat and still be left with a taut thriller. It seemed upon first impression that's what Ms. Scherm was going for here. The story was taut, but completely lacked any sense of suspense. Absent any twists, the reader is left with a convoluted character study that strained credulity.
We begin with Grace (reinventing herself as Julie) in Paris, restoring antiques for a less-than-scrupulous back-alley outfit, pondering the imminent release from prison of two of her closest male friends, incarcerated for the robbery of a local museum back in her home town of Garland, Tennessee, a heist that was entirely conceived by Grace. The bulk of the novel tells Grace's story in her formative years growing up with her first love Riley and his best friend Alls(ton) and what led these otherwise intelligent kids down the path of a life of crime.
The blurb's comparison to Gillian Flynn does this novel a huge disservice. You expect a suspensful thriller, but Ms. Scherm isn't that kind of writer, and it' becomes clear that isn't where she was going with this anyway. Still, that expectation loomed in the back in my mind that there was going to be some kind of payoff at the end, some kind of.shocking denouement to make Grace's rather tepid character study worthwhile. Her behavior was certainly unbecoming from what you'd expect an aspiring Art History major to be, but novel-worthy? Sorta-kinda, but ultimately, not really.
Rebecca Scherm's debut novel Unbecoming cannot escape comparison to Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize winner The Goldfinch, with the young, morally confused protagonists, the antique restoration/art heist/forgery plot, and the circumnavigated settings (Paris by way of NYC and Garland, Tennessee). Whether a coincidence or by design, it almost seems like a calculated effort by Ms. Scherm to replicate Ms. Tartt's success.
That's not the reason for my middling rating, though. While I liked The Goldfinch plenty, there was ample opportunity to pare the bloat and still be left with a taut thriller. It seemed upon first impression that's what Ms. Scherm was going for here. The story was taut, but completely lacked any sense of suspense. Absent any twists, the reader is left with a convoluted character study that strained credulity.
We begin with Grace (reinventing herself as Julie) in Paris, restoring antiques for a less-than-scrupulous back-alley outfit, pondering the imminent release from prison of two of her closest male friends, incarcerated for the robbery of a local museum back in her home town of Garland, Tennessee, a heist that was entirely conceived by Grace. The bulk of the novel tells Grace's story in her formative years growing up with her first love Riley and his best friend Alls(ton) and what led these otherwise intelligent kids down the path of a life of crime.
The blurb's comparison to Gillian Flynn does this novel a huge disservice. You expect a suspensful thriller, but Ms. Scherm isn't that kind of writer, and it' becomes clear that isn't where she was going with this anyway. Still, that expectation loomed in the back in my mind that there was going to be some kind of payoff at the end, some kind of.shocking denouement to make Grace's rather tepid character study worthwhile. Her behavior was certainly unbecoming from what you'd expect an aspiring Art History major to be, but novel-worthy? Sorta-kinda, but ultimately, not really.
February 27, 2015
It has been a while that I have read a novel such as this.
Grace takes us on her journey as she leaves Garland Tennessee and heads to New York and Prague, and then transforms herself as Julie from California residing in Paris.
She of course leaves more than just her hometown. She leaves her husband she’s known since grade school, her family she never was close with, her husbands’ family she’s always thought she was a part of until, after a few too many mishaps, realizes she never was and never will be. But most of all she leaves behind the one true love.
From her first time stealing another girls’ birthday money for a lesson learned to restoring antique objects, she tests her skills as she reinvents herself stretching the truth to avoid being found.
It is being found that is most profound.
This is a refreshing take on a thriller suspense mystery. Living with the choices one makes and unexpected twists is what drives Grace and Alls in the end.
Grace takes us on her journey as she leaves Garland Tennessee and heads to New York and Prague, and then transforms herself as Julie from California residing in Paris.
She of course leaves more than just her hometown. She leaves her husband she’s known since grade school, her family she never was close with, her husbands’ family she’s always thought she was a part of until, after a few too many mishaps, realizes she never was and never will be. But most of all she leaves behind the one true love.
From her first time stealing another girls’ birthday money for a lesson learned to restoring antique objects, she tests her skills as she reinvents herself stretching the truth to avoid being found.
It is being found that is most profound.
This is a refreshing take on a thriller suspense mystery. Living with the choices one makes and unexpected twists is what drives Grace and Alls in the end.
April 18, 2015
The press got me very excited about this novel; sadly, I was a bit disappointed. It’s a fine read. The psychological thriller part was in the last fifth of the book. I did enjoy the art heist portion. Scherm did her research.
It’s a story of Grace, who wants desperately to fit in with the sophisticated and tightly knit family of her boyfriend. Grace feels unmoored, and her boyfriend’s family, especially his mother, makes her feel safe. As Grace and her group of friends reach young adulthood (17-19), bad choices and hard times fall on all. The group is desperate for money, and Grace is the brain behind stealing and fencing art without getting caught.
The robbery turns bad; Grace escapes unscathed to Europe. Betrayal, deception, lies all play into the plot. Grace gets various menial jobs in art restoration and unwittingly learns a trade.
It’s a fast read. Only a few plot points require attention. It’s a fairly easy read that would be perfect for the beach or poolside.
It’s a story of Grace, who wants desperately to fit in with the sophisticated and tightly knit family of her boyfriend. Grace feels unmoored, and her boyfriend’s family, especially his mother, makes her feel safe. As Grace and her group of friends reach young adulthood (17-19), bad choices and hard times fall on all. The group is desperate for money, and Grace is the brain behind stealing and fencing art without getting caught.
The robbery turns bad; Grace escapes unscathed to Europe. Betrayal, deception, lies all play into the plot. Grace gets various menial jobs in art restoration and unwittingly learns a trade.
It’s a fast read. Only a few plot points require attention. It’s a fairly easy read that would be perfect for the beach or poolside.
October 24, 2015
The plot of this book has been compared to those of authors such as Gillian Flynn & Marisha Pessl; I do not disagree, but in my opinion this book did not live up to these expectations in terms of the dark and the mysterious. I did enjoy this book however, and towards the end of the story I could not put the book down. The title is concise and suits the story of Grace perfectly. At some points I sympathized with Grace and really understood the situations she was dealing with, including her relationship issues and feelings of being trapped in a small town and wanting to get out into the world (and finally getting out to pursue a college education.) At other points, I felt more animosity towards Grace, and found myself unable to understand the decisions she was making. I think that's part of what makes the character of Grace so interesting: the reader can commiserate with her as she gets herself into increasingly questionable situations, yet just as easily pass judgment on her as the lies and delusions pile up. She is relatable and simultaneously insincere. Grace's character reflects one or more aspects of our own personas, and regardless of the choices she makes for herself, it is easy to either picture yourself in her shoes or even remember a time when you dealt with something similar. Grace's circumstances are unfortunate, and it is both intriguing and heart-breaking to find out where she ends up, the consequences she is left to face, and how the ones she once considered closest to her will deal with the regrettable mess she leaves behind.
November 13, 2014
First book I've read and finished in a long while so I'm wholly, incorrigibly grateful to someone.
Unbecoming A Novel tries to get across as a novel of grandiose, I think, but inside is a story in complete contrast. The characters try to come off as players in the major leagues, but their dynamics are simpler, motivations clearer than you'd expect. There's a twisted sort of homeliness,- or longing for it - as opposed to mind-fucks and coziness, that worked for me. It's where the genius lies.
The story is split into two parts, past and present. For a greater part of the novel, 'present' sets up only the mental and physical surrounding of Julie as stories, backgrounds, histories and action opens up in the 'past' chapters in the life of Grace. There's a ring of contrariness that consecutive chapters set up because of the difference in what time of the same character - Julie actually being Grace - that actually mitigates any sort of disorientation that comes from reading stories written in such manner.
The first lie Grace ever told Hanna was her name.
Suspense builds up in one part while there's the lull of relatively normal life and unwarranted anticipation born of guilt that is a part of it. When we are finally done with the past and we get to what was behind the beginning of the story, the 'present' chapters come to the forefront and everything materializes.
Grace was a lonely, neglected girl (aren't they all?) when she fell in love with Riley. Riley opened the gate for her to his family - his mother, Mrs Graham. Slowly, this love evolves and changes and becomes confused. It's not love for Riley anymore but the sense of belonging and family that being with him brings about. She becomes the daughter Mrs Graham never had. Mrs Graham is the kind of mother Grace never had. And as this childhood love for Riley morphs, as she falls for another, the harder she tries to hold on, doing whatever to keep a hold of/on him. There is Alls, the biggest temptation. And she realizes that Mrs Graham may not be that mother at all.
Fast forward three years, Julie lives in Paris while the two main characters of her childhood - Riley, her husband, and his best friend, her lover, Alls - are finally let out on parole.
Grace goes through many changes during the course of her story, on the way to becoming Julie. There are precursors obvious enough but the changes are gradual processes that change her perception, what she sees and was unwilling to see before. Only one thing is constant, despite what may come: her longing to be Mrs Graham's, truly. And these transformations of characters were the bestest thing of all.
So... this is a basic love triangle kind of story, in a way since the kinds of love differ, which leads to disastrous consequences.
Yet for me, consequences and everything weren't the important part. There are three characters - Grace, Alls, Hanna - and the lengths one may go to fool oneself. There are nuances to them but they're still actually simple, and by that I don't mean lacking in anything. They're all different and as unhinged, fucked-up or psychotic at least the first two try to be, their motivations are easy to figure out and understand. Yet that causes intrigue all of its own.
Unbecoming A Novel is kind of psychological in its own way, but more than that, it's a character study. If you can get into Grace, you will enjoy this story, simple as that.
But there are other aspects to consider: Scherm's writing is grrrr-reat. I mean, it's totally palatable but maintains a kind of class and insight. It doesn't exactly resonate but comes close to it.
The only thing that miffed me a bit was the turn that the story took towards the end. It seemed too easy, too wonderful but comes along a conclusion rife with bitterness and want, ending it all on a purr-fect note. I'm still miffed, though.
But yay for this book! I'd LOVE it if you LOVE this book. It's a intriguing, fantastic book, just sizzling in anticipation of your readership. Ohh do read it! Even if you slightly like it, I won't hate you. Don't let that cover turn you off; it looks much better in reality.
Song pairing, kind of but not exact: Dance Little Liars by The Arctic Monkeys
Unbecoming A Novel tries to get across as a novel of grandiose, I think, but inside is a story in complete contrast. The characters try to come off as players in the major leagues, but their dynamics are simpler, motivations clearer than you'd expect. There's a twisted sort of homeliness,- or longing for it - as opposed to mind-fucks and coziness, that worked for me. It's where the genius lies.
The story is split into two parts, past and present. For a greater part of the novel, 'present' sets up only the mental and physical surrounding of Julie as stories, backgrounds, histories and action opens up in the 'past' chapters in the life of Grace. There's a ring of contrariness that consecutive chapters set up because of the difference in what time of the same character - Julie actually being Grace - that actually mitigates any sort of disorientation that comes from reading stories written in such manner.
The first lie Grace ever told Hanna was her name.
Suspense builds up in one part while there's the lull of relatively normal life and unwarranted anticipation born of guilt that is a part of it. When we are finally done with the past and we get to what was behind the beginning of the story, the 'present' chapters come to the forefront and everything materializes.
Grace was a lonely, neglected girl (aren't they all?) when she fell in love with Riley. Riley opened the gate for her to his family - his mother, Mrs Graham. Slowly, this love evolves and changes and becomes confused. It's not love for Riley anymore but the sense of belonging and family that being with him brings about. She becomes the daughter Mrs Graham never had. Mrs Graham is the kind of mother Grace never had. And as this childhood love for Riley morphs, as she falls for another, the harder she tries to hold on, doing whatever to keep a hold of/on him. There is Alls, the biggest temptation. And she realizes that Mrs Graham may not be that mother at all.
Fast forward three years, Julie lives in Paris while the two main characters of her childhood - Riley, her husband, and his best friend, her lover, Alls - are finally let out on parole.
Grace goes through many changes during the course of her story, on the way to becoming Julie. There are precursors obvious enough but the changes are gradual processes that change her perception, what she sees and was unwilling to see before. Only one thing is constant, despite what may come: her longing to be Mrs Graham's, truly. And these transformations of characters were the bestest thing of all.
So... this is a basic love triangle kind of story, in a way since the kinds of love differ, which leads to disastrous consequences.
Yet for me, consequences and everything weren't the important part. There are three characters - Grace, Alls, Hanna - and the lengths one may go to fool oneself. There are nuances to them but they're still actually simple, and by that I don't mean lacking in anything. They're all different and as unhinged, fucked-up or psychotic at least the first two try to be, their motivations are easy to figure out and understand. Yet that causes intrigue all of its own.
Unbecoming A Novel is kind of psychological in its own way, but more than that, it's a character study. If you can get into Grace, you will enjoy this story, simple as that.
But there are other aspects to consider: Scherm's writing is grrrr-reat. I mean, it's totally palatable but maintains a kind of class and insight. It doesn't exactly resonate but comes close to it.
The only thing that miffed me a bit was the turn that the story took towards the end. It seemed too easy, too wonderful but comes along a conclusion rife with bitterness and want, ending it all on a purr-fect note. I'm still miffed, though.
But yay for this book! I'd LOVE it if you LOVE this book. It's a intriguing, fantastic book, just sizzling in anticipation of your readership. Ohh do read it! Even if you slightly like it, I won't hate you. Don't let that cover turn you off; it looks much better in reality.
Song pairing, kind of but not exact: Dance Little Liars by The Arctic Monkeys
November 5, 2015
I received this from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. It had a cool cover and sounded different than my normal read so I went for it.
Someone I follow described this as Gone Girl meets The Goldfinch, and while I usually try not to describe books through other books, it was just so accurate I had to steal her idea. It has the pace and slowly unveiling plot of both books, with a questionable female narrator and the subject of art. I think people who were fans of either of those books would enjoy this one. I actually enjoyed the little details about art restoration, art heist, etc., and found myself looking for more information about some of the famous art thieves mentioned. I think that made the book better than if it had been just the story itself, but I would give it 3.5 stars if I could.
Someone I follow described this as Gone Girl meets The Goldfinch, and while I usually try not to describe books through other books, it was just so accurate I had to steal her idea. It has the pace and slowly unveiling plot of both books, with a questionable female narrator and the subject of art. I think people who were fans of either of those books would enjoy this one. I actually enjoyed the little details about art restoration, art heist, etc., and found myself looking for more information about some of the famous art thieves mentioned. I think that made the book better than if it had been just the story itself, but I would give it 3.5 stars if I could.
November 24, 2014
This is a novel that I tried very hard to like, but in the end I just couldn't. Unbecoming comes wrapped up in all sorts of "hints" and "echoes": Hitchcock (well, one of his movies is mentioned a couple of times), Highsmith (I do see the connection between Tom Ripley and Grace), and Gillian Flynn, who's currently flavor of the month. Perhaps I should've heeded my inner alarm when I saw Flynn's name because I couldn't get past the first twenty-five pages of Gone Girl. I didn't pay attention; however, and I had to force myself to finish this book.
Unbecoming is also labeled a "heist novel," but it isn't really. The robbery is alluded to many times, but it's never really talked about in any detail until the end of the book. Instead almost the entire novel is a very slow and meticulous look into the metamorphosis of Grace. Grace, who started out as a lonely but very likable child looking to be loved, to be a part of a family. As the years pass, she becomes enmeshed in the life of her chosen family, becoming chameleon-like in an attempt to be accepted.
Most of Grace's attempts to belong involve some sort of lying or deception, and although I'm the farthest thing from being an ultra-conservative moralist, I just couldn't empathize with her. Neither could I empathize with Riley, since he came from a family with a bit of money and he coasted through his life without really thinking about anything very much-- especially consequences. The only character I could muster up some empathy for was Alls, the boy with the father everyone in town whispered about, the boy who had no money and had to work for every single thing he had. I could empathize with Alls, but I never grew to like him.
The incredibly slow pace of the novel and its characters were killers for me, but there were things I liked about Unbecoming. For me the book came to life whenever Scherm described the work Grace did to restore items in the shop in Paris. Both the items she worked on and Grace herself seemed to glow, and I swiftly began to look forward to these scenes.
I also appreciated the very intricate plotting of the book, which was skillful even if I didn't like the story. Grace is also one of the most nuanced characters I've encountered in a long time. It's just a shame that I didn't like her and grew tired of her slow unveiling.
All in all, Unbecoming just wasn't my cup of tea, but that certainly doesn't mean that it can't be yours.
Unbecoming is also labeled a "heist novel," but it isn't really. The robbery is alluded to many times, but it's never really talked about in any detail until the end of the book. Instead almost the entire novel is a very slow and meticulous look into the metamorphosis of Grace. Grace, who started out as a lonely but very likable child looking to be loved, to be a part of a family. As the years pass, she becomes enmeshed in the life of her chosen family, becoming chameleon-like in an attempt to be accepted.
Most of Grace's attempts to belong involve some sort of lying or deception, and although I'm the farthest thing from being an ultra-conservative moralist, I just couldn't empathize with her. Neither could I empathize with Riley, since he came from a family with a bit of money and he coasted through his life without really thinking about anything very much-- especially consequences. The only character I could muster up some empathy for was Alls, the boy with the father everyone in town whispered about, the boy who had no money and had to work for every single thing he had. I could empathize with Alls, but I never grew to like him.
The incredibly slow pace of the novel and its characters were killers for me, but there were things I liked about Unbecoming. For me the book came to life whenever Scherm described the work Grace did to restore items in the shop in Paris. Both the items she worked on and Grace herself seemed to glow, and I swiftly began to look forward to these scenes.
I also appreciated the very intricate plotting of the book, which was skillful even if I didn't like the story. Grace is also one of the most nuanced characters I've encountered in a long time. It's just a shame that I didn't like her and grew tired of her slow unveiling.
All in all, Unbecoming just wasn't my cup of tea, but that certainly doesn't mean that it can't be yours.
June 7, 2015
There is a lot I liked about this book. The coming-of-age part of the story was strongest. That time in life when you are still forming is always such a compelling read. As an only child I identified with Grace and Alls who both wanted the type of family and security that Riley had in spades. I get it. As a child I loved spending time with my friends who had big families. The chaos, the noise, the carpools, the mess. Our house was generally quiet and orderly. My parents worked. It was way more fun to be in the midst of chaos. Grace came from a home of benign neglect and Alls had an alcoholic father. Both of them longed for a nurturing environment and it shaped them. It shaped their actions. And that is where this story shines. As a character study. The rest has its moments but my favorite parts were during those early years. I was especially impressed with Grace's transformation in New York and those first few moments when she returns to Tennessee after a semester of college. Again, what a character study.
October 22, 2014
Everyone who gets the chance to reinvent themselves thinks this time will be different - I will look prettier, be smarter, be more popular and yet we always come back to where we began. Grace, codename Julie, is working as an antique restorer in an underpaid and less than glamorous shop that gives her the one thing she needs - a place to hide. Once in a place far away she was the perfect young girl who dated the most popular boy in school. They were the golden couple and along with Riley's friend, Alls they were inseparable until the robbery. Life was perfect until they all got a little too greedy and the boys went to jail. Now, they are out and Grace's life is about the change again. We want to feel sorry for Grace/Julie and her fate. She doesn't seem like a bad person, just misguided but that is not the whole story. A modern day version of "To Catch a Thief", "Wild" and "The Bourne Identity", this debut by Rebeccca Scherm has great heart and insight into what goes into reinventing yourself and how you can never really escape your past lives. My thanks to the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy.
October 10, 2014
Probably more like 3.5 but just because it got off to a really slow start and because I wanted to punch the narrator in the face a couple of times. No not really but she is a bit annoying especially in the beginning. That being once I got started I really couldn't put it down and once you hit the halfway point it's really a race to the finish to see what happens.
Julie rents a room in a dilapidated house outside of Paris. She repairs antiques, mostly things no one else wants. She is loner and has no friends or social life. In her room at night she reads the news from Garland Tennessee, her hometown where two men are about to be let out on parole for a crime that she was the mastermind. She is terrified of being found and is just trying to survive.
Julie rents a room in a dilapidated house outside of Paris. She repairs antiques, mostly things no one else wants. She is loner and has no friends or social life. In her room at night she reads the news from Garland Tennessee, her hometown where two men are about to be let out on parole for a crime that she was the mastermind. She is terrified of being found and is just trying to survive.
December 31, 2024
Holy shit. On New Year’s Eve, this book that I don’t even REMEMBER putting on my TBR like eight years ago, sneaks in to become the Best Of 2025. It was extraordinary, and so so beautifully written.
March 15, 2015
I chose this book to ease myself back into reading, after taking an unintentional month long break. It was another ARC picked up at my husband's work. I think the cover drew me in.
It is a book with an appropriate title. It is about a young woman named Grace, and her unbecoming. Unbecoming herself, unbecoming the false presentation of herself to the world, and unbecoming people's expectations of her.
It is written in different chunks of time, separated by the location. I Garland. II New York. III Paris. Each location has a distinct feel to it, and you learn more about Grace and her story through the different locations of her life.
I went into this book not knowing anything about it, and I think that was the way to do it. While it felt like a slow burn to the end, there were so many subplots to follow that each part of the book felt like its own story.
I wasn't blown away with the writing or the story, but I liked the characters and I liked how real it felt.
This was my favorite part of the whole book, I think:
Outside, she and Alls walked a yard apart, Alls following Grace to the subway, though she wasn't certain exactly where the nearest station was. Almost no one else was out on the Upper East Side. A man in a trench coat, his face tight and shiny, wove unsteadily down the sidewalk behind them like a toddler learning to walk.
"Hey Nebraska," he called. "Nebraska, you slut."
Alls grimaced and took her arm, and they walked faster.
"I know what those slutty boots mean, Nebraska. Is that where you're from? Or fucking Ohio?"
Grace stopped and turned around. "Get the fuck away from me."
The man laughed to himself and then pulled out his cell phone, as though he'd forgotten that Alls and Grace were standing there and that he had been harassing her. He mashed some buttons and groaned.
"You done, man?" Alls said. "You need to turn around, go the other way now."
The man stepped forward, casually, easily. "Who's this, your brother? Your brother come up from the farm?"
"I told you to get back from me," Grace warned.
"I'll tongue-fuck you till you can't breathe," he slurred quietly. "In your little boots." He stepped into the light from a streetlamp and seemed to wilt there, his body slumping forward. Grace grabbed Alls's elbow and they stomped down the sidewalk, Grace's heels hitting the concrete hard enough to send shocks up through her shins, her thighs, into her hips.
"Has that ever happened before?"
"I'm not usually out so late." Usually she was on the phone with Riley by now. Boys never seemed stupider than when they were surprised by the bad behavior of other men.
It is a book with an appropriate title. It is about a young woman named Grace, and her unbecoming. Unbecoming herself, unbecoming the false presentation of herself to the world, and unbecoming people's expectations of her.
It is written in different chunks of time, separated by the location. I Garland. II New York. III Paris. Each location has a distinct feel to it, and you learn more about Grace and her story through the different locations of her life.
I went into this book not knowing anything about it, and I think that was the way to do it. While it felt like a slow burn to the end, there were so many subplots to follow that each part of the book felt like its own story.
I wasn't blown away with the writing or the story, but I liked the characters and I liked how real it felt.
This was my favorite part of the whole book, I think:
Outside, she and Alls walked a yard apart, Alls following Grace to the subway, though she wasn't certain exactly where the nearest station was. Almost no one else was out on the Upper East Side. A man in a trench coat, his face tight and shiny, wove unsteadily down the sidewalk behind them like a toddler learning to walk.
"Hey Nebraska," he called. "Nebraska, you slut."
Alls grimaced and took her arm, and they walked faster.
"I know what those slutty boots mean, Nebraska. Is that where you're from? Or fucking Ohio?"
Grace stopped and turned around. "Get the fuck away from me."
The man laughed to himself and then pulled out his cell phone, as though he'd forgotten that Alls and Grace were standing there and that he had been harassing her. He mashed some buttons and groaned.
"You done, man?" Alls said. "You need to turn around, go the other way now."
The man stepped forward, casually, easily. "Who's this, your brother? Your brother come up from the farm?"
"I told you to get back from me," Grace warned.
"I'll tongue-fuck you till you can't breathe," he slurred quietly. "In your little boots." He stepped into the light from a streetlamp and seemed to wilt there, his body slumping forward. Grace grabbed Alls's elbow and they stomped down the sidewalk, Grace's heels hitting the concrete hard enough to send shocks up through her shins, her thighs, into her hips.
"Has that ever happened before?"
"I'm not usually out so late." Usually she was on the phone with Riley by now. Boys never seemed stupider than when they were surprised by the bad behavior of other men.
December 6, 2014
*I won this book through goodreads' first reads.
This is the most thoroughly bland book I've read in a long time. It has a lot of potential, and it tries really hard but in the end, for me, it's just . . . bland. The concept is good, the writing is more than adequate, the characters are believable . . . but it just doesn't quite work for me. Perhaps it's the almost entirely inaccurate description that lead me to enter the giveaway in the first place - this book is being billed as a thrilling heist novel, but it opens with heist-er who got away nervously reading about how the heist-ers who didn't get away are getting out of prison. And while we do see the crime happen eventually, since it's told in flashback and we already know the end, the suspense and wondering if they will pull it off is killed.
So the thrilling part is dead, what about the coming-of-age story? That didn't really work for me either. Grace starts as a pre-teen girl who tries to be the girl the people she's with want her to be, whatever that group happens to be at the moment. By the end she's the 25-year-old who succeeds at being the girl she wants the people she's with to think she is in order to get away with whatever she happens to want to get away with. Personally, I don't see a lot of growth or change in that. She is hardly a femme fatale, even if the first page you come upon inside the cover is a letter from the vice president of the publishing company telling you you're about to read the story of the making of one.
And then there's the ending. After a brief chapter or two of suspense when the flashback story catches up to the present we skip ahead to an epilogue where everything is, perhaps not ideal, but the life Grace has chosen is working out perfectly. Everything goes flawlessly, she's happy as a clam and has everything, more or less, that she wants. It's not a picture perfect ending the way the final scene of "A Christmas Carol" is, but it's exactly how Grace would have imagined it to be - no challenges, no possibility of things going wrong. It's all wrapped up with a perfect, shiny bow - even if the bow is not in the prettiest color. I don't like endings like that 95% of the books I read, and it was absolutely the wrong one for this book. On the other hand, the epilogue was the only part of the book where I felt any emotion other than "neutral" . . . even if it was a negative one. So that took it from three down to two stars. So close . . .
This is the most thoroughly bland book I've read in a long time. It has a lot of potential, and it tries really hard but in the end, for me, it's just . . . bland. The concept is good, the writing is more than adequate, the characters are believable . . . but it just doesn't quite work for me. Perhaps it's the almost entirely inaccurate description that lead me to enter the giveaway in the first place - this book is being billed as a thrilling heist novel, but it opens with heist-er who got away nervously reading about how the heist-ers who didn't get away are getting out of prison. And while we do see the crime happen eventually, since it's told in flashback and we already know the end, the suspense and wondering if they will pull it off is killed.
So the thrilling part is dead, what about the coming-of-age story? That didn't really work for me either. Grace starts as a pre-teen girl who tries to be the girl the people she's with want her to be, whatever that group happens to be at the moment. By the end she's the 25-year-old who succeeds at being the girl she wants the people she's with to think she is in order to get away with whatever she happens to want to get away with. Personally, I don't see a lot of growth or change in that. She is hardly a femme fatale, even if the first page you come upon inside the cover is a letter from the vice president of the publishing company telling you you're about to read the story of the making of one.
And then there's the ending. After a brief chapter or two of suspense when the flashback story catches up to the present we skip ahead to an epilogue where everything is, perhaps not ideal, but the life Grace has chosen is working out perfectly. Everything goes flawlessly, she's happy as a clam and has everything, more or less, that she wants. It's not a picture perfect ending the way the final scene of "A Christmas Carol" is, but it's exactly how Grace would have imagined it to be - no challenges, no possibility of things going wrong. It's all wrapped up with a perfect, shiny bow - even if the bow is not in the prettiest color. I don't like endings like that 95% of the books I read, and it was absolutely the wrong one for this book. On the other hand, the epilogue was the only part of the book where I felt any emotion other than "neutral" . . . even if it was a negative one. So that took it from three down to two stars. So close . . .
February 17, 2016
3.5 stars
All for a Mother's love:
"Without his Mother's love, Grace's love for Riley was wearing thin, but it was all she had to wear."
Solid debut from author Rebecca Schern, although I can see why there are such mixed reviews about it.
This is a tough one to catagorize as it's not a psychological thriller (didn't get the relation to Gone Girl at all) but not a true mystery either. I think the underlying foundation throughout the whole storyline is about love and what it is and how it means different things to different people. Don't get me wrong, there were some jaw dropping moments that caught me off guard, and if you are a fan of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch you will find many similarity's from the misguided protags, the theft, the travel and the similarity stemming from childhood insecurities that helps shape who they became as adults.
I found myself both hating and feeling sorry for the the main protagonist Grace, and thought the author did a great job of drawing me to caring about what happens to all of characters.
Not sure if justice was served in the end, but I was happy how things wrapped up and look forward to reading more from this author.
All for a Mother's love:
"Without his Mother's love, Grace's love for Riley was wearing thin, but it was all she had to wear."
Solid debut from author Rebecca Schern, although I can see why there are such mixed reviews about it.
This is a tough one to catagorize as it's not a psychological thriller (didn't get the relation to Gone Girl at all) but not a true mystery either. I think the underlying foundation throughout the whole storyline is about love and what it is and how it means different things to different people. Don't get me wrong, there were some jaw dropping moments that caught me off guard, and if you are a fan of Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch you will find many similarity's from the misguided protags, the theft, the travel and the similarity stemming from childhood insecurities that helps shape who they became as adults.
I found myself both hating and feeling sorry for the the main protagonist Grace, and thought the author did a great job of drawing me to caring about what happens to all of characters.
Not sure if justice was served in the end, but I was happy how things wrapped up and look forward to reading more from this author.
February 26, 2019
Wow! I REALLY enjoyed this. I read it as an audiobook on my commute and I just couldn't wait for the next time I jumped in my car. Scherm's first novel, and an excellent debut. Unbecoming centres around Grace, a girl from small-town Tennessee, who feels she doesn't belong in her own family, and instead embraces her boyfriend's. Her boyfriend from age 12. Yep, small town. They have their life planned: college (art, art history), jobs (artist, museum, cashier), marriage, kids, until Grace begins to want more. Between Tennessee, NYC (Grace at college), and Paris (fun!), Grace evolves from one young lady into another entirely different; a novel quite based on character development, but not an expected journey whatsoever, hence the title ;)
June 28, 2017
A gritty novel with an ambitious development of unlikeable (unbecoming?) characters. It was so refreshing to have unlikeable main characters without them being sociopaths, but still want to know what happens in the end. A masterful character study couched in a crime novel!
advanced reading copy
advanced reading copy
April 21, 2023
I picked this up at the thrift store because it sounded like my favorite genre of books: FULTs (fucked-up lady thrillers). It wasn't that, because it isn't quite as thrilling or breathlessly heisty as the flap suggests. Still, I found myself enjoying this a lot. It's told into a dual timeline that's divided by the cities each part takes place in.
Usually I prefer books with a more balanced mix of dialogue and narration. This had more of the latter, but I thought the characters really came to life anyway. I guess this is sort of a slow burn book, because there's a lot of back story to get through. The last quarter or so really had me riveted and may have been what saved me from donating it. I considered it, but given the fact that I had a dream clearly inspired by this book and continued thinking about the characters all through the next day made me think I should go ahead and keep it. I may or may not read it again, but I did like this a lot and will definitely recommend it to people who enjoy a slower moving story and messy heroines.
Usually I prefer books with a more balanced mix of dialogue and narration. This had more of the latter, but I thought the characters really came to life anyway. I guess this is sort of a slow burn book, because there's a lot of back story to get through. The last quarter or so really had me riveted and may have been what saved me from donating it. I considered it, but given the fact that I had a dream clearly inspired by this book and continued thinking about the characters all through the next day made me think I should go ahead and keep it. I may or may not read it again, but I did like this a lot and will definitely recommend it to people who enjoy a slower moving story and messy heroines.
October 11, 2014
Rebecca Scherm's debut novel enters into a lively subgenre of literary fiction: narratives about artistic forgery, theft, and black-market trafficking. Think of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley Underground, Peter Carey's Theft, Siri Hustvedt's What I Loved, Elizabeth Kostova's Swan Thief, and, most recently, Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch. And I am a sucker for this stuff! I think it's because I'm a professor in the beleaguered humanities. These novels let me indulge in the fantasy that art objects are not just the stuff of a college major that will render you unemployable; they are instead the objects of international criminal intrigue!
Unfortunately, Scherm's novel did not impress me as a major or memorable contribution to the genre.
The plot is straightforward: Grace is a teenager benignly neglected by her middle-class parents in her small-town Tennessee community. She is all-but-adopted by the more aristocratic family of her high school boyfriend Riley. By age 17, Grace has acquired an improbable expertise in antiques. She, Riley, and their quasi-delinquent friend Allston steal a painting and some other objects from from a local historical site. The boys are caught and serve a three-year prison term, but Grace absconds with the painting to Europe, sells it, loses the money, assumes a false identity, starts work in a shop that restores antiques. The boys are released from prison and she worries about being unmasked.
The prose is competent, sometimes surprising and beautiful. Take this description of an antique box Grace wants to restore: "She would have to teach herself [the artist's] gilding process in order to convincingly fill the chips and scratches. She relished every injury, running her fingers very lightly over them as if they were sensitive bruises. Each one was a chance. She would repair them all." Not bad, right? Even with that split infinitive?
But here and throughout the novel, the sensitivity and attention lavished on objects has to substitute for full characterization. Grace falls in love twice in this novel; neither time does the narrative provide any sense of what is compelling about either man. Nor does it make Grace seem enticing enough to justify the criminal lengths to which these men are willing to go for her. It offers no insight into the psychological strain that might be caused by shedding one's nationality, identity, and acquaintances and expatriating to a different country. The "bruises" on that gilded box are the closest we get to the topography of Grace's emotional life. After three years--by which time Grace has reached the ancient age of 21 or 22--she has unconvincingly acquired a world-weary sang-froid, as well as the expertise of a virtuosic antiques restorer.
If Scherm took this conceit all the way, it could work beautifully. If Grace were actually a sociopath--someone whose emotional life is internally dead, but manifests itself in the objects to which she ministers--then the novel could work. That's sort of what happens in Highsmith's novels: the desert of Ripley's interior is belied by the opulence of his decadent material life. But instead, the narrative gives us meager, anemic explanations for Grace's choices and transformations. Her parents never loved her enough, so she wanted the approval of her boyfriend's mom. She is emotionally crippled in college because she is still dating her middle-school boyfriend. Her unrealized passion for Allston has sustained her throughout her secret life. These rationales ring hollow and trite.
All of that said, I read this book in one night. The plot was intriguing enough; the pacing was good; the prose was mostly precise and sometimes surprising in the best ways. The premise of artistic restoration and forgery as an allegory of human deception has enormous potential. But finally, the sentence that sticks with me most--and not for the right reasons--is this one, in which Grace describes both a teapot she has imperfectly restored and her own assumed identity: "[S]he had never forgotten the truth. She'd told shoddy lies. The story was pale and underdeveloped and looked like the imposter it was." Alas, after a full reading, that sentence becomes a meta-commentary on Unbecoming.
[I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.]
Unfortunately, Scherm's novel did not impress me as a major or memorable contribution to the genre.
The plot is straightforward: Grace is a teenager benignly neglected by her middle-class parents in her small-town Tennessee community. She is all-but-adopted by the more aristocratic family of her high school boyfriend Riley. By age 17, Grace has acquired an improbable expertise in antiques. She, Riley, and their quasi-delinquent friend Allston steal a painting and some other objects from from a local historical site. The boys are caught and serve a three-year prison term, but Grace absconds with the painting to Europe, sells it, loses the money, assumes a false identity, starts work in a shop that restores antiques. The boys are released from prison and she worries about being unmasked.
The prose is competent, sometimes surprising and beautiful. Take this description of an antique box Grace wants to restore: "She would have to teach herself [the artist's] gilding process in order to convincingly fill the chips and scratches. She relished every injury, running her fingers very lightly over them as if they were sensitive bruises. Each one was a chance. She would repair them all." Not bad, right? Even with that split infinitive?
But here and throughout the novel, the sensitivity and attention lavished on objects has to substitute for full characterization. Grace falls in love twice in this novel; neither time does the narrative provide any sense of what is compelling about either man. Nor does it make Grace seem enticing enough to justify the criminal lengths to which these men are willing to go for her. It offers no insight into the psychological strain that might be caused by shedding one's nationality, identity, and acquaintances and expatriating to a different country. The "bruises" on that gilded box are the closest we get to the topography of Grace's emotional life. After three years--by which time Grace has reached the ancient age of 21 or 22--she has unconvincingly acquired a world-weary sang-froid, as well as the expertise of a virtuosic antiques restorer.
If Scherm took this conceit all the way, it could work beautifully. If Grace were actually a sociopath--someone whose emotional life is internally dead, but manifests itself in the objects to which she ministers--then the novel could work. That's sort of what happens in Highsmith's novels: the desert of Ripley's interior is belied by the opulence of his decadent material life. But instead, the narrative gives us meager, anemic explanations for Grace's choices and transformations. Her parents never loved her enough, so she wanted the approval of her boyfriend's mom. She is emotionally crippled in college because she is still dating her middle-school boyfriend. Her unrealized passion for Allston has sustained her throughout her secret life. These rationales ring hollow and trite.
All of that said, I read this book in one night. The plot was intriguing enough; the pacing was good; the prose was mostly precise and sometimes surprising in the best ways. The premise of artistic restoration and forgery as an allegory of human deception has enormous potential. But finally, the sentence that sticks with me most--and not for the right reasons--is this one, in which Grace describes both a teapot she has imperfectly restored and her own assumed identity: "[S]he had never forgotten the truth. She'd told shoddy lies. The story was pale and underdeveloped and looked like the imposter it was." Alas, after a full reading, that sentence becomes a meta-commentary on Unbecoming.
[I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.]
March 23, 2015
Marketers of the Publishing World, beware: Do not invoke Gone Girl in your descriptive copy of a book. I understand the temptation, I really do, especially since GG was such a blockbuster. I also understand because Amy Dunne is such an indelible, incredible character, you want to believe that this manuscript that you either truly loved or simply didn't make you want to self-injure is in the same sphere as Gillian Flynn's masterpiece. However, this is not. It's sad when a potentially interesting plot about art theft is bogged down by exposition and minutiae before we have a reason to care about any of the characters. I got through about a third before I chucked it in favor of a much better book that was given as a Valentine's Day gift. Don't bother with this one.
November 15, 2014
I had this as an advanced reader from work (it is released in January), and I really loved it. The main character is a thief and a liar, but that's not why you will hate her. You will hate her because she is so believable as a character that you will imagine yourself capable of her crimes, and loathe yourself for it while reading. I love books that worm their way into your head like that. I thought this was lovely and nuanced, and by the end you are rooting for her despite yourself.
December 29, 2015
Grace in Unbecoming ranks alongside Megan Abbott’s Beth in Dare Me & Elizabeth Little’s Jane in Dear Daughter in the premier league of the bad girls club. If she could have replaced Theo as the principal character, The Goldfinch might well have been the best novel to appear in my lifetime. Tho’ Rebecca Scherm cannot match Donna Tartt’s sweep, scope, & mastery of prose & pathos, the sheer intensity of Unbecoming simply carried me away. I was continually on edge with concern for Grace, and identified totally with her. Like The Goldfinch, Unbecoming is based on the parallel between authenticity in life & in art. Grace illustrates one of my favorite themes in literature, the character who transforms herself into someone else - like Cassie Maddox/Lexie Madison in Tana French’s The Likeness. Grace indeed reminded me very much of the original Lexie, the murder victim, of The Likeness.
Without ever quite intending to do it, Grace began her formation as a criminal mastermind while she was still a teenager in Tennessee. But not only is Unbecoming a marvelous caper story, it also depicts relationships superbly & poignantly. Grace’s new identity comes @ a high price, particularly in betraying a family who virtually adopted her & loved her, & their son Riley who was both her earliest BF & later secret husband.
There is another character whom I originally found odious but came to admire. When you get betrayed & screwed over by a bad girl you can go all to pieces - like the pathetic Nick in Gone Girl - or you can be big & bad enough & smart enough to go out & get back what you deserve. Without telling how this story ends, I’ll simply say that it was completely satisfying both emotionally & artistically. This is a book I definitely plan to read again.
Without ever quite intending to do it, Grace began her formation as a criminal mastermind while she was still a teenager in Tennessee. But not only is Unbecoming a marvelous caper story, it also depicts relationships superbly & poignantly. Grace’s new identity comes @ a high price, particularly in betraying a family who virtually adopted her & loved her, & their son Riley who was both her earliest BF & later secret husband.
There is another character whom I originally found odious but came to admire. When you get betrayed & screwed over by a bad girl you can go all to pieces - like the pathetic Nick in Gone Girl - or you can be big & bad enough & smart enough to go out & get back what you deserve. Without telling how this story ends, I’ll simply say that it was completely satisfying both emotionally & artistically. This is a book I definitely plan to read again.
December 29, 2015
With strong echoes of The Goldfinch, another interesting combination of heist & literary fiction. A young woman (Grace by birth, Julie by fleeing criminal choice) has escaped to Paris, under an assumed name, having effectively gone to ground after an historic house in her hometown is robbed, a former boyfriend/partner/human-she-was-involved-with in prison as well as his accomplices. Tracing her background and involvement with not just her future partners-in-crime but the whole class boundary between her poor background and her male romantic partner's wealthy family, her past is a combination of crime thriller and anatomy-of-a-crime story. It's atmospheric and psychological (though not as obviously fictionalized as The Girl on the Train or Gone Girl).
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June 30, 2015I picked this book up because the title/cover caught my attention and I started reading it not knowing a thing about it. I was delighted to discover it’s the type of book that gives you little crumbs along the way, just enough mystery to keep you turning the page. It starts with Grace living in Paris, pretending to be someone else, working for a restorer (jewelry/antiques) and flashes back to her teens up until she fled to Europe from the U.S. Soon you realize pretending is what Grace does, becoming the girl she thinks others want her to be but which, if any, version is the real her? I’ve become (no pun intended) a big fan of the “unlikeable,” flawed and complicated female character and this certainly delivered. — Jamie Canaves
from The Best Books We Read In May: http://bookriot.com/2015/06/02/riot-r...
from The Best Books We Read In May: http://bookriot.com/2015/06/02/riot-r...
January 5, 2015
Unbecoming is the perfect novel for someone who is tired of reading traditional "coming of age" stories. In fact, it can be argued that Scherm's novel is an anti-coming-of-age story. In stead of discovering who she really is, Grace learns to reinvent herself into several different personas.
In some ways, Unbecoming reminded me of USA's White Collar. If is a fast-paced adventure that will leave you wondering what Grace will do next. Read the rest of my review on my website.
In some ways, Unbecoming reminded me of USA's White Collar. If is a fast-paced adventure that will leave you wondering what Grace will do next. Read the rest of my review on my website.
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