The Meaning of Fear by Laura Hulthen Thomas

 

What time of the day do you like best to read?  I do most of my reading at night before bed.

In 2008, Lea Johnson is a behavioral researcher who is struggling to keep her lab going during the downturn in the economy.  Even though she is a behavioral researcher, she is unable to help her husband Jay who was violently attacked by youth outside their home and no longer is the same man.  When a youth disappears that Jay had confronted outside their new home, did he have something to do with it? 

Paul had a hard life growing up.  Now as a cop, he is investigating the disappearance of a local youth when he runs into Lea, who he met as a youth.  As attraction grows between the two, will they be able to confront issues from the past, figure out the current mystery, and move forward?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       This novel should have some trigger warnings.  It had a rough and depressing start that included the violent murder of a beloved pet cat and the grooming and discussion of a sexual assault of a young teenage girl.  There was a lot of violence against animals in this book.

·       The book is set in Michigan.  I grew up in Southwest Michigan and I appreciated the Southeast Michigan setting of the book.

·       This was a very well written book, and I loved the language.

·       It was interesting the Lea studies the fear response and trauma, but she can’t see and understand the same thing in her husband.

·       There was a lot of discussion on the treatment of animal.  Lea used mice in her research and her childhood friend Dinah is an animal rights activities.  There is a deer cull also happening in Lea’s neighborhood.

·       This book explored how trauma impacts relationships and an individual’s future.

·       This book is a literary fiction novel and a psychological drama.

·       It was a dark and heavy read, but very readable and kept me wondering what was going to happen next.

·       The characters were very well written and developed. 

·       There were interesting book discussion questions at the end of the book that could be used for book clubs.

Overall, The Meaning of Fear by Laura Hulthen Thomas was a very well written psychological drama and literary fiction novel with an interesting mystery and great character development.

Book Source:  Thank-you to @laurahulthenthomas @regal_house_publishing @tlcbooktours for a review copy of this novel as part of the TLC Book Tour.