Official Review: The Clothesline by Krista Schade

[Harty Muli]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Clothesline" by Krista Schade.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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In The Clothesline, Krista Schade narrates a touching tale involving a boy who was abandoned by his mom soon after birth. It’s also a regrettable story because the mother later became a woman of means, yet her son continued languishing in abject poverty and a state of deprivation for a mother figure. In the process, through Logan’s story, Schade illustrates the social and emotional effects of parental neglect on a child.

In adulthood, Logan sought a way out of his mental anguish by battering his wife, Tasmin. As a child, even though his mother had given him up for adoption, Logan wasn’t lucky to find a family to take him in. And that was the time he developed a deep resentment for the established order. What’s more, his outlook towards life became even grimmer when the government imposed a lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The resultant loss of his job led him into a dark life of drugs and alcohol abuse.

Logan’s mother, Dawn, is just one instance of a toxic parent. My one favorite aspect about this novel was how Schade highlighted the behavior of other such parents, whose negative conduct extends to how they treat their kids. For example, Tasmin’s friend, Fairy, got her name from a joke her father used to tell at her expense, about how her hair grew but not her legs. I felt that it was this sort of verbal abuse that led Fairy to be unsuccessful in keeping friends and even enduring the agony of a stillbirth, later in life. As it was, to compensate for what was denied to her through poor parenting, Fairy tried to acquire self-confidence through indulging in the sport of “tai chi,” which is a form of martial art.

To her credit, Schade’s pacing was well delivered, as the narrative was even and continuous. Nonetheless, I felt the author could have heightened the tension a notch higher in some of the sub-plots. In one such sub-plot, Schade could have achieved this by delaying Dawn’s knowledge of the fate that befell her son. This could have been accomplished through ramping up the narration around the activities of the investigator, who had been hired by Dawn to track down the whereabouts of Logan.

However, it’s just possible that the author, being a first-time writer, wanted to keep things short and simple; hence, her writing a short novel of 65 pages long. The book also seemed to lack a touch of professional editing expertise, as I came across 10 errors. The majority of these consisted of verb tense errors. Lastly, due to the author’s ineffective build-up of tension and the presence of several errors, I rate it 2 out of 4 stars.

In conclusion, parents will be advised to read this book, as it highlights some repercussions of toxic parenting. It’s also suitable for the general reader. This is because it deals with some common social problems we are grappling with currently, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic violence, and delinquency. On the other hand, the language is a bit unwholesome, due to the presence of curse words. Readers who are sensitive to this may find the book less suited to them.

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The Clothesline
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[Raluca_Mihaila]

Thank you for your honest review! Maybe the author wanted to release her book as soon as possible, and she skipped the professional editing. That is too bad, because the subject seems interesting enough.

[Bookworm101520]

This sounds like a very timely book! I would be very interested in reading about the effects of the mother on the child she left behind. Thank you for a great review!

[Harty Muli]

Thank you for your honest review! Maybe the author wanted to release her book as soon as possible, and she skipped the professional editing. That is too bad, because the subject seems interesting enough.

Thanks for your kind comments.

[Harty Muli]

This sounds like a very timely book! I would be very interested in reading about the effects of the mother on the child she left behind. Thank you for a great review!

Thanks for your kind comments,