Jen Thorpe

The Peculiars is the story of a group of people who are doing a short session of counseling to address their phobias. It is narrated by three of the people in alternating chapters. There’s Ruby the counselor who runs the program and perhaps needs some counseling for her own insecurities. There’s Nazma whose afraid of driving, a skill she needs if she’s ever going to pursue her dreams. Then there is Sam, a handsome man who attracts the interest of both women at first, whose fear of being robbed in increasingly controlling his life.

I was drawn by the title, I thought it suggested a bit of a caper, a bit of wit. There’s no such thing. This book is all too serious about following the program. That is, if the new minister who Ruby publicly chastised for corruption does not take away their funding.

This book was disappointing. I expected some wit and joy and there was very little. It was too literally following the program. Thorpe did not seem to know what book she wanted to write, a romance, a book about self-discovery, a book about petty bureaucratic squabbles. There’s also just a bit of a too-ridiculous end. It’s not hateful, perhaps if I had a phobia, I might get inspired to try to treat it from this book, it is hopeful in that way. Otherwise, it’s not really of much merit.

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