By Nest, Rowan O'Donnell
“Nesting,” Rosin O'Donnell's charming debut novel contains all the twists and turns of the classic thriller. However, the heroine, Ciara, is not trying to solve the mystery or murder. She is a housewife who struggles to cut off her relationship with her abusive husband. Ryan is the type of man that other women stare at, when he plays the role of a loyal, hardworking father on the beach and playground. In the privacy of their home, he terrifies Ciara and she knows she has to leave.
But where can she go? Ciara lives in Dublin amid the housing crisis of 2018. She has no friends as Ryan cut her off from them. And she cannot escape to her British mother and sister. Because Ryan doesn't give permission to take his four- and two-year-old daughters abroad.
And what kind of money? There's nothing in Ciara and there's no way to make money. When they got married, Ryan claimed that Ciara had quit her job as a teacher and was unable to work in Ireland as she didn't speak Irish.
If it's not Ryan's house, where would Ciara and her children sleep? How do they buy groceries, if not the money Ryan Doll went out to her? Ciara is not sure if she can even think of herself anymore. “For years, she has been separated from the world,” she realizes. “Her head is filled with anxiety that she has tracked her heart.”
Ciara's struggle is as halted as the plight of detectives, as well as assassins or spies, tolerable by so many victims of domestic violence. “Nesting” is tense and propelling from the start when Ciara learns that she is pregnant. She tried to leave Ryan before, but her young daughter had only been born for a few weeks, but she couldn't leave for long. This time, Ciara bolts his instincts, grabs the laundry off the line and sits the child in the car without much planning.
While she waits for the subsidized home, Ciara secures temporary emergency accommodation through city services at the rundown hotel. The front desk warns her that she will be kicked out if she fails to check in before 8am each night, or if the hotel reaches full capacity. Also, Ciara can find education jobs, but it is a probationary period and does not always lead to class preparation due to sick children or complications of pregnancy.
“Leaving is one thing, leavinging is another,” the victim of domestic violence tells Ciara. She knows that giving up and going home can be easier in many ways. After all, Ciara reminds herself, and Ryan never actually hit her. His abuse comes in almost all forms of emotional, financial, sexual – but the house is pasta bake, bath toys, warm laundry, and even happiness with Ryan, where Ciara can't shake It means memories. She doesn't know what's wrong with her daughters in the long run: she lives in a cramped hotel room or grows up believing that the way her father treats her mother is normal.
Aside from the heavy side plot about vulnerable hatching that finds distracting and unnatural characters, “nesting” is immersive and emotional. I was rooted in Ciara as she found a stable home, continued her job, and scrambled to make new friends. I suffered as she tried to celebrate toilet train, breastfeeding, Christmas in one monotonous, small hotel room.
And I was furious with Ryan's endless mind game and predation. Especially when he and Ciara face each other in court. Ciara is desperate for full custody, but he cannot clarify the extent of Ryan's abuse to the judge. She still handles herself, giving Ryan an opening to take advantage of Ciara's trauma and economic instability. He claims that she is indifferent and irrational to raise a child in unsafe circumstances, and demands his parental rights as a father. However, he dismissed his parental duties when Chiara was still living at home, and it is impossible to imagine that he could take care of his children during the overnight visit he was fighting. I feel that way. Does he unintentionally hurt them? Or if Ciara doesn't agree to go back together, will he intentionally hurt them in order to get revenge? Is it safer for them to reunite?
Like all worthy thrillers, “Nest” keeps readers guessing to the end. It is rare and refreshing to read satisfactory suspense novels that exist in the domestic territory. Instead of dark alleys and underworlds, it's a quiet world of dupos and nursing bras, daycare and playrooms.
Nest | Rosin O'Donnell | Algonquin | 384 pp. | $29
