Things Don't Break on Their Own

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 29, 2024

A stray comment at a dinner party proves seismic in Easter Collins's devastating debut. After Willa Martenwood's younger sister, Laika, goes missing near their wealthy family's London home, a teenage Willa escapes the ensuing media circus by transferring to a boarding school. There, she becomes friends and secret lovers with her roommate, Robyn Bee. Twenty-two years later, Robyn is a happily married mother of three, while Willa is engaged to boorish cad Jamie and remains obsessed with finding Laika, whom she believes is still alive. When Robyn invites Willa to a dinner party she and her wife, Cat, are hosting, Cat bristles; she's jealous of Willa and fears Jamie will ruin the night. Still, the evening goes smoothly enough­—until one guest makes an offhand remark regarding the thesis they're working on about the corruptibility of memory, which sends Willa down a rabbit hole and eventually convinces her that Laika might be closer than she thought. In kaleidoscopic first-person narration that alternates between Robyn and Willa's perspectives, Easter Collins skips back and forth in time, imparting details about each woman's past and fleshing out their characters at a steady clip. Though the plot goes to some far-fetched places, evocative prose holds the whole thing together, and Easter Collins enriches the mystery with some thoughtful reflections on the rippling effects of domestic violence. It's an auspicious start.