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Reviewed by Robert A. Groves for Readers' Favorite
Everbound by Kari Chaplin opens with what seems to be a quiet marriage that is going slightly strange. Sydney makes breakfast for her husband, Caleb, and their two children, Jack and Gracie. Yet small things keep slipping. Coffee returns to the counter after she pours it. Clocks are frozen at thirteen. A letter arrives from a former lover, Sam, whom she has not spoken to in 20 years. And suddenly, Sydney finds herself caught between a safe love with Caleb and one that makes her feel seen with Sam. She has to choose between a life she sought and built over many years and one she could not stop feeling. Just for an added twist, Sam is Caleb’s best friend. By the end of the novel, she does make a choice. But before the reader learns what the choice is, there is Magnolia Circle, a stormy night, a truck, and a truly bizarre plot. Hold on! You are in for quite the surprise.
Kari Chaplin has built the central premise of Everbound around choosing which life one wants. Sometimes the choice is not ours but is made through unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes the choice is driven by the need to survive. The book withholds its true shape for most of its length, and that plot design was an intelligent choice made by Chaplin. The reader experiences Sydney’s life right along with her even when some of the evidence is clearly showing. The writing has a way of protecting the reader from the truth right along with Sydney. The number 13 is the novel’s load-bearing motif. It appears on the series branding (XIII), on a brass token Sam sends, and bleeds into Sydney’s world. The number is not a code to crack. It is a recurrent wound. In the end, the tension is not between a good spouse and a bad temptation. It is between two very different kinds of love. You will be left pondering many things at the end, including your life choices if you were in Sydney’s shoes. Everbound has my highest recommendation for your autumn reading list.
