Cass and Ryan Connor have a happy life. Three kids, good jobs, a beautiful house. They have achieved the American dream. At least, that's how it appears on the surface . . .
After Cass's first husband died, she wasn't sure she could go on. She had two kids and wondered how she would get by. But time went on, and she found herself healing, and then she met Ryan. She worried that he wouldn't accept her kids, but instead he jumped in to their lives, filling it with love and laughter. He adored her kids just as if they were his, and when Cass got pregnant again, Ryan was absolutely over the moon. They created a happy, loving family and moved from New York City to the West Coast, where they could buy a big house and embrace the suburban family lifestyle in Washington state.
Ryan's job as an architect and Cass's leap from journalist to college professor offered them a good lifestyle. While they are far from millionaires, they can afford a comfortable life. But Ryan's late nights start to take their toll, and Cass's study of how to turn an accuser into a victim feed her anxiety about accusing Ryan of having the affair that she thinks he's having. Through the secrets and lies, the insinuations and arguments, the "proof" that he so easily explains away, Cass finds herself wondering just who it is that she married, and what she should do about her doubts.
Poison by Galt Niederhoffer is a confounding look at modern marriage and at how and why we trust those close to us.
I will be honest--I struggled with this book. Some days I loved it and some days it just felt awkward. The book is told in third person, and as an admitted first-person narrator junkie, I felt a little put off by the narration. But there is another layer of distance that I felt with this particular narrator, like it was being told by a psychologist or academic describing what happened as a clinical post-mortem on this marriage. At times that was off-putting and at other times it was mesmerizing. Like I said, I struggled. I felt like I alternatively got sucked into the story and then pushed away, which (now that I think about it) mirrors what happens in a relationship, particularly a marriage like this. I think that's why I stuck with the novel through my feelings of discomfort.
Poison is not a light read. It's not a simple thriller or just a tale of a marriage in trouble. It's complex and complicated and filled with deep psychological insights and difficult questions about how humans behave in extreme circumstances. Daring and mind-bending, Poison is a powerful novel if you think you've got what it takes to ride it out.
Galleys for Poison were provided by St. Martin's Press through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.