A witty heroine, thrilling mystery, and the multiple interpretations of various genres within one story highlight THE NOVEL LIFE OF CORAL AMBROSE. Initially, Coral seems content in her current state: she loves to read and all of her bookshelves have filled up her entire apartment. However, upon closer inspection, there are deeper psychological undercurrents running through her hoarding, journaling, and obsession with remembering everything. Since her brother’s unsolved murder struck her at five years old, she’s never truly recovered. When she meets used bookstore owner Phil Reddington — of the charmingly named Red’s Reads, he gives her a mysterious briefcase that promises to impart “clarity” for her. Despite her initial skepticism, Coral soon discovers that it allows her to transport into realistic worlds with stories coming to life. She’s featured as a character in these worlds and depending on which book she slips into the briefcase, the genres change.
Ballou manages to weave in several incredibly vibrant worlds as Coral finds herself in genres including horror, western, mystery, sci-fi, and even bodice-ripper. Once Coral realizes that there’s a recurring cast of characters who keep cropping up and following her from world to world, she begins to attain a greater sense of self, gaining not only courage but also insight into piecing together more of her memory. Ballou does a marvelous job of balancing the new worlds that Coral enters, along with her real world, with the stakes high in both parallel universes. Coral’s journey is, just as she contemplates, “the very best blockbuster movie meets theme park meets role-playing game, and all for free.” The darker moments of her real life, however, do eventually upend the light-hearted, humorous tone and commentary that runs through most of the worlds.
THE NOVEL LIFE OF CORAL AMBROSE is a delicious page-turner that spotlights not only imagination, but the solace of storytelling.
~IndieReader.