Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder

Like Great Gatsby: SLOW Start, Explosive Ending, *NOT* Neurodivergent. I tell the story often of my experience with The Great Gatbsy. Back in sophomore year of HS, it was actually assigned as summer reading before the school year. I didn't read it. Every time I tried to open it, the first chapters were just SO UTTERLY BORING that I literally couldn't keep my eyes open. Managed to bullshit through the discussion of it during my International Baccalaureate level English class that fall. Switched to a school without an IB program in Spring Semester, where now I had one of those old school even then (late 90s) slap-the-knuckles-with-a-ruler type English teachers. This lady *forced* me to read the book via making it a point to call on me to read out loud during class. She knew I HATED it, I wasn't subtle about my disdain at all, and I had a superiority complex at this new school to boot.

But god DAMN if she didn't wind up getting me through those first boring chapters, where the tale then woke up and became truly one of the great American books, particularly of its period and truly quite possibly ever.

I tell that story here because it directly applies to this book. This book is S L O W at first and utterly, completely, mind bogglingly BORING. There simply is no way around that. Even at 20% in, I was commenting on social media (without naming that I was reading this book) that it was horrible.

And then...

And then you get to the point - roughly halfway in - where you find out WHY the front half was so utterly boring.

And like Gatsby, this point turns the novel on its head and makes it a truly great book. No, it still isn't Gatbsy's level, but this is where it is going to make you *feel*. It is going to make the room so dusty you'll be verifying that the walls around you haven't suddenly collapsed, because you're going to be crying so hard during some of this next section that you're going to be snotting all over the place and finding it very difficult to breathe. Mayne manages to utterly bore your mind before absolutely DESTROYING your heart worse than a direct hit from a G2 Research RIP round would.

This back half is truly what makes the book, so fight through the boredom of the front half - it really does get so very much better.

Oh, and the neurodivergent thing; A lot of reviewers (I'm somewhere right around the 1,000th review on at least one review site) have mentioned that this book features a neurodivergent protagonist. It does not. The words "neurodivergent", "spectrum", "Autism", or even "Asberger's" are nowhere in the text of this tale, and while the front part of the book in particular (and to a slightly lesser extent the back part as well) characterize our protagonist as *stereotypically* neurodivergent, just because someone acts according to a stereotype does not mean they actually *are* whatever the stereotype is supposed to be of. Indeed, we actually get an explanation in that back half of the book that is *not* any form of actual neurodivergence so much as ... something else that is directly explained and explored (part of what makes the heart shatter so much), but which would be a spoiler to reveal here.

Overall truly a tale of two halves as far as the reader experience goes, but absolutely one you should read.

Very much recommended.

I just finished Lenny Marks gets away with murder by Kerryn Mayne and here are my thoughts.

Lenny Marks life is set in stone. She doesn't deviate from her routine... It keeps her safe after a traumatic experience she suffered as a child... One she keeps repressed. When she receives a letter from the parole board, her life begins to unravel and things she would rather forget won't stay forgotten...


It's a really good book. I was blown away that this is a debut novel and if this is how a debut looks... YAHOO the author is in for a beautiful career.

Lenny tries really hard to ust live her day in day out life and you can see how something has made her the kind of introvert she is but people want to get to know her and the more they wiggle their way in, the more Lenny can't hold the facade and it's quite heartbreaking to see her go through it.

I found Lenny hard to take at first because of how closed off she is but she worms her way into my heart. The mystery unfolds around this letter from the parole board and what it means because it doesn't give many clues at first and we find things out slowly but it is brilliantly done.

It's moderately paced but it works really well with the build up. The last 60 pages blew my mind. I hate spoilers so the title kinda ruined that for me a tad but I really enjoyed this book.

4.5 stars

Thank you to @stmartinspress for my gifted copy. OUT NOW!!!

I cannot gush about this book more!

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I loved everything about this book. I could identify with Lenny in many ways. I will reread this, for sure.

This is the debut novel from Kerryn Mayne. It follows a reclusive and slightly odd grade school teacher who is dealing with a past trauma brought back to the forefront when she receives a letter from the parole board.
Lenny is a very relatable character that you will instantly love. Mayne's writing is sharp, with moments of dark humor and vulnerability. It moves gracefully from a fun read to a suspenseful novel. The twists are unpredictable, which keeps you reading (I thought about this book constantly and picked it up at every chance.)
It's a great read! I can't wait to read more from Mayne.