Book Review: The Hiding Place, by Jenny Quintana

Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

On the surface, The Hiding Place was an enjoyable read: the hook of finding out what circumstances left Marina abandoned as a baby was intriguing, the writing flowed well and was easy to follow, and the secondary characters, in particular, were interesting and multi-dimensional. Unfortunately, this book fell short on a number of fronts, at the end leaving me with a vague sense of dissatisfaction.

The book alternates chapters between Marina’s point of view: the abandoned baby now a grown woman full of questions about her past; and Connie’s point of view: a pregnant teen struggling with the limited choices available to her in the 1960s. Marina manages to rent a flat in the house-turned-apartment building where she was found as a baby, hoping to find answers to the mystery surrounding her appearance, and we learn early on that Connie lived in the same building almost 30 years prior.

The identity of Marina’s mother is clear very early on. It was interesting to follow both storylines simultaneously, and I’ve seen this technique used to wonderful effect before, and I had been hoping for a delicious twist later on, as the obvious mystery of Marina’s parentage was answered so early. Unfortunately, the lack of said twist left the ending flat and lacking a solid sense of closure.

Connie, while likeable, comes across as shallow and inconsistent. She spends a great deal of time fawning over the boy who got her pregnant and then left for Paris, and planning to follow him there even though he doesn’t write to her and clearly wants to cut ties. Quintana attempts to paint Connie as a kindhearted, caring, thoughtful daughter in the eyes of others, but this is undermined by Connie pawning her late mother’s jewellery for a ticket to Paris. It seems Quintana is trying to have her cake and eat it too, and these contrasting traits never quite gel into a believable and well-rounded character.

The secondary characters, by contrast, are a collection of interesting people, from the Polish immigrants upstairs to the ex-con landlord. Learning where each of these characters ends up between Connie’s time and Marina’s was one of the highlights of the book, and I would have loved to have seen some of these with more impact on the main storyline.

The Hiding Place, while not quite the thriller it was pitched to be, was a mostly enjoyable read and a good way to pass the time.

Reviewed by Kristin Stefanoff

Distributed by: Pan Macmillan
Released: 30 March 2021
RRP: $32.99

More News