In Elizabeth Oldham’s contemporary novel SHADOWS ON THE HEART, three generations of female family members contend with the loss of loved ones. When both her parents die, twelve-year-old Jade is whisked away from California to Arizona by her MMA-fighter aunt Lita (her father’s half-sister), along with her two younger siblings. Accompanying the three children is Lita’s estranged mother, Evie, whom her brother had been caring for before his death due to her advanced dementia. Lita is unprepared to care for three children and an elderly woman, especially when the struggles of her traumatic childhood start to catch up to her.

The story flips between Jade, Lita, and Evie’s perspectives, plumbing the depths of their respective experiences with grief and adjusting to their new environments. While Jade and Lita’s points of view are relayed in a standard, approachable past tense narrative, Evie’s chapters are told in present tense—mirroring her temporally displaced mental state. She shifts from her confused present to flashbacks, expressing worry over past-Lita’s safety and frustration at present-Lita’s anger. Because Evie is often “suddenly overwhelmed,” versions of this phrase (and consequently her emotions) begin to lose their meaning, and her constant reference to the Lita she doesn’t recognize as “the tattooed woman” grows repetitive. The narrative’s sharp language, however, offers precise portrayals of the characters’ personalities—as when “a storm cloud forms in the shape of a small, familiar, tattooed woman at the end of the tunnel entrance.”

The character-driven nature of the book results in a slow-moving plot. Jade encounters tense struggles with bullying and getting in trouble when she first begins school in Arizona, but major events are few and far between in the book’s second half. This latter portion centers instead on conversation and shallow introspection, as when Jade contemplates what to do about a gift she received from her crush that she knows was stolen.

Of the three perspectives, Jade’s provides the most poignant interactions with grief; her anger manifests in underage drinking, and her desire for connection sees her push away those who show easy love in favor of those whose misbehaviors reflect her own. Lita’s realistic journey from tortured punk to loving guardian often probes the psyche of an adult who had an abusive childhood, but her reconciliation feels rushed; a single revelation from her father has her do an unbelievable 180 overnight. Though the extended ending feels extraneous, it offers a welcome catharsis for these three strong female characters.

In Elizabeth Oldham’s SHADOWS ON THE HEART, three complex female characters drive the slow but steady plot of this moving depiction of dementia and grief.

~Aimee Jodoin for IndieReader