Saturday, July 3, 2021

Mary Dixie Carter: The Photographer

In her debut novel, Mary Dixie Carter shows the extent a woman will go to to have the perfect family:

Delta Dawn has an amazing gift when it comes to photographing children, so much so that she is called upon NY elite to capture the important family events. When Delta is hired to capture the events of the Straub's only daughter, Natalie, birthday, Delta begins to wish that she was part of their lives. This is where Delta hatches a plan, to do everything in her power to become part of the Straub's life, t be part of there picture perfect family. Detla realizes that she's just as good at manipulating photos as she is manipulating people.

I think this book had a lot of promise and I have not read a book like this in a long time, but you can tell that this is a debut novel. This book attempts to be a psychological thriller but I do not think that it made it there, it was more of a slow burning domestic suspense. It is basically a book about a woman who becomes obsessed with a family, in a pretty creepy way, but it never surpasses the creepy factor to becomes a full on thriller. 

I wanted everything within this book to be more extreme, more manipulation, more Delta inserting herself into the family's life. I wanted to know more about Delta and her metal state, why she is doing what she is doing. I mean Carter hints to her past throughout the book, but is Delta really this way as she is just looking for and wanting a better family of her own? Or is there something deeper there as to her reasons why she is willing to do what she does for this family. I mean if you have read this book Delta does sacrifice quite a bit for the family as well.

I wanted Delta to be more manipulative than she was, I think there were opportunities for the within the book but Cater did not take them. Also as this book is only told from Detla's POV, we cannot really see what the inner workings of the manipulations that Delta has started, other than she just always seems to get her way. I just wanted more, and everything more extreme. Why just stick to the photographs of some of the things she picture, why not put more of those fantasies actually into the book. I also wanted a bit more in the ending, maybe Natalie's POV in the end, how her time with Delta had shaped her. Also, the ending seemed so abrupt and a complete 180 in attitude for Delta, like it seemed like she completely changed as a person.

This was an audio-book read for me and I was not a fan of the narrator in this book. She was good when she was doing other character's voices but I did not like her voice for Delta. I found it whiny and did not sound like it fit the character that Delta was.

This book was just okay to me, I wanted Carter to take a more extreme approach in Delta's behaviour, as i thought that there was just a gradual escalation of events and manipulation that never really hit the high point. I would try another book by Carter, I just suggest if you do read this book do not expect a thriller.

Cheers!!!
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