Review of Deceptive Calm

[Gabriel Caceres]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper.]

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4 out of 5 stars

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Deceptive Calm, a book about an orphan who has to deal with many adversities and challenges, from her birth up to her adult life.
Overall, to my taste, the book was really good, enjoyable and also very well written. The further I read, the more I liked the story, events and development. However, I must mention that I found the first quarter of the book most boring and tedious; specifically the dialogues with Sister Rosalie and her countless historical facts, stories and very detailed narration of past events that eventually I just wanted to skip those parts that I found dull.

It contains very graphic and explicit sexual content, but it didn’t feel out of place or to convey eroticism, but to present a raw and intense view of the experiences.

There was a detail from the author that I found interesting: she mentions the book title once, and this happens during a key period where the situation might seem calm until things start to change.

Out of five, I'll give it four stars. Among the things I personally disliked are the repetitiveness during the first quarter of the book mentioned before and the lack of content and interactions during the outcome of the book. I would have enjoyed a more detailed ending once the story took its final turn. There was a lack of appearances of main characters that I would have liked to read more from; their thoughts, feelings about the events and interactions between them and the antagonists. In the end, it was worth reading and I enjoyed it, even though for the most part, the main point of the book was the misfortunes and tragedies in the personal life of the main character, Vanessa.

What I learnt from the book is that sometimes the biggest source of love in a person’s life might not even come from a biological parent, a relative or a romantic partner, but form a loyal friendship or an adoptive figure.

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Deceptive Calm
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