Nana

Title: Nana
Author: Brandon Massey
First Published: March 27, 2018
Publisher: Self-Published
Pages: 262
Genre: Horror, Paranormal
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Rating:


Synopsis:

Monica Stephens never knew her birth mother. Raised by a strict but loving adoptive parent, she blossomed into a woman with a thriving career as a pediatrician and a family of her own. But sometimes, she wondered about her origins. Especially her biological mother.

Until Grace arrives.

Confessing to be the birth mother Monica had long wanted to meet, Grace quickly becomes an indispensable member of the Stephens household. Cooking their meals. Looking after the children. Comforting Monica when the family dog is inexplicably killed. Tending to Monica as she falls ill to a mysterious sickness that, every day, makes Monica look and feel older.

Meanwhile, Grace is looking better. More vibrant. More youthful. More seductive...

Monica's husband, Troy, knows something is up. He launches an investigation into the woman who demands to be called "Nana," and has taken over his home.

But the truth is beyond their wildest imaginings.

It seems Grace has done this before...

Buy the Book: Amazon

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Review

Well this book was certainly a wild ride, exceptionally so. Nana introduces us to Grace, a quintessential mother-in-law from hell. She is refined and sexy even at her advanced age, an outstanding homemaker and cook, and a seemingly perfect mother kept away from her daughter, Monica. She shows up at the funeral of Monica’s adoptive mother, ready to swoop in and make up for all the lost time. The set-up was exciting and I blazed through the book, wanting to know what would happen and biting my nails with anxiety over the obvious red flags in the situation.

What the story did well was create an absolutely outstanding villain. Grace is an engaging character every time she appears in the book, from her mysterious witchy vibe to her deliciously biting remarks, she is a wonderful example of a monstrous feminine character. She was one of the most likable characters in the story specifically because she is just so unabashedly evil and she doesn’t really hide it. There were points that Grace was actually a terrifying force and parts of the story were really creepy. The first half of the novel was actually really strong, and I thought that I would love it, but it started to taper off in the second half of the book.

Despite being the main focus of the plot, Monica’s character feels really watered down. Besides being naive due to her childhood trauma of being abandoned and Grace’s machinations, she is hardly given the time to develop as a character. Monica’s husband Troy was no better, he is honestly the biggest piece of shit and unfortunately, more of the main character than Monica was. He is a smug affluent doctor and serial cheater that proclaims to value his wife and children as he betrays his family. There is a grim sort of satisfaction that his life falls apart in a matter of days. He spends the entirety of the book playing a cat-and-mouse game with Grace, and while he’s trying to figure everything out he ignores Monica, leaving her to be abused and hardly notices.

In a way, this sort of fits the overarching theme of infidelity, which at its core stems from a basic lack of respect for his wife and their marriage. Their union is weak because they don’t communicate, which yeah is kind of a given when one of them leads a double life. They are only able to get a handle on what is happening when they start to communicate. Troy’s character-defining moment of coming clean is literally only given a few short lines and almost nothing is said about it when in reality healing from infidelity is a long and arduous process.

The other frustrating aspect of this story was this sort of Asian fetishization going on whenever Grace is described. She is constantly described as wearing sexy “kimono” dresses and robes in every color and at one point is compared to a tai chi master with her gracefulness. Being an Asian woman, the persistent references made me a little uncomfortable, given the prevalence of the over-sexualized Dragon Lady trope in the western media. The story began to really drag at the end, even after some pretty damning events the characters are still so blithely ignorant. Even Grace’s twisted antics started to get old, particularly once it got to breastfeeding.

There were too many little things that held down an otherwise fascinating and original story. I liked the story, but I didn’t love it, and I really, honestly wanted to love this one. I think it could have been great with a little more editing and development of the characters.

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