Friday, October 1, 2021

Book Review: "Hold Me Down" by Clea Simon

As Clea Simon's latest book, Hold Me Down, shows us, sometimes painful memories confront us even when we have no idea they’ve been hiding within us.

Gal remembers what it was like to command an audience as the singer of a once-popular band. But life on the road, particularly for three women in a band, was tough, full of drugs, alcohol, sex, and those who believed women were inferior in the music world.

Now middle-aged, it’s been a while since she’s performed, but she agrees to participate in a tribute for her former drummer and best friend. She is shaken when she spots a familiar face in the crowd, and that shock intensifies when she finds out that man was killed not far from the concert venue later that night—and her best friend’s widower is accused of the murder.

Gal can’t believe her friend would murder anyone, but when he refuses to fight the charges, she needs to understand why. She learns the dead man had been asking about her, but why after all these years? But the deeper she digs, the clearer memories of her past become, memories she had hidden so deeply she didn’t realize they existed.

While some of the blurbs promoting this book have called it a thriller, I’d say it’s more a story about survival, how memory can both protect and hurt us, and the immense responsibility we feel toward those we care about. The story shifts between past and present and almost feels as if things are being revealed like memories becoming clearer.

Thanks to Suzy Approved Book Tours, Clea Simon, and Polis Books for inviting me on the tour, and providing me a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review!

Hold Me Down publishes 10/19.

No comments:

Post a Comment