strictly literary: indelible by adelia saunders

magdalena was born with a special gift. a terrible gift, actually. she can see words describing a person's fate written on their skin. she crosses paths with neil and richard beart, an estranged father and son, and what she sees written on their skin intrigues her. because somehow she is connected to them, but how?

and here's the thing. if you really want the answer to that question, this book won't answer it for you. but if you like books about journeys. about figuring out how the past informs the present. about how there's always more to the story than we think, then this is the book for you.

i enjoyed neil and magdalena's perspectives best, in part because their stories are more connected than richard's. richard spends most of his time investigating his biological mother's life and her final days in paris. his memories of her not jiving with the stories every one else tells. eventually he figures out a part of the story, but as readers we realize something more, the real truth. though if he will ever have the chance to figure that out for himself is a question mark too. but this quest of his feels very separate from the story that links magdalena and neil. and this made it feel like we were actually reading two separate stories. in some ways this book reminded me a lot of possession by a.s. byatt. which i had mixed feelings about. i liked indelible, but i also wanted both more and less. in the end though it is definitely a book worth reading.

**indelible will publish on january 17, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/bloomsbury usa in exchange for my honest review.