Stash

Title: Stash by David Klein
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2/5

Gwen Raine's your average stay-at-home mom living in an idyllic suburban neighborhood. But Gwen's perfect world starts to fall apart when she's involved in a car accident and the cops find marijuana in her car. Thanks to a recent rise in drugs-related crime, they're taking this seriously even though the accident wasn't Gwen's fault.

Sadly, I wasn't overly impressed by Stash. While I do think it was well-written, I didn't find it very engaging. It just seemed to fall flat.

For the most part, I found the characters stereotypical and dry. Gwen's your average well-off stay-at-home mom - school volunteer, vice-president of the PTA and very aware of her appearance in the community - who smokes up on occasion (with her best friend) to relax. Her husband's a workaholic whose company is going through its own crisis at the moment, and who's being pursued by a coworker. The character I found most interesting was Dana, one of the secondary characters. An athlete who avoids drugs and alcohol despite the example her parents set for her (or perhaps because of it). She seems unique thanks to a venous malformation that makes her look like she has a permanent black eye. Even when she makes some less than intelligent decisions, she fights back and takes care of herself.

The narrative switched points of view throughout the book and I found it distracted from the story. I also found the story predictable at points. I was only surprised a few times by the events in the book, one of which occurred towards the end and actually got me interested in the story for a while. Unfortunately, it didn't last long.

As the book progressed, I thought maybe the moral of the story was going to be how drugs can mess up your life, but considering the conclusion I'm not sure any of the characters learned anything.

I have to admit that I probably wouldn't have finished Stash if I wasn't reviewing it for this blog. Personally, I'm not likely to recommend it to anyone but I've seen some very positive reviews out there, so give it a try and decide for yourself.

Thanks to Broadway Books for the Advanced Reading Copy of Stash. The views expressed above are my own. For more information on Stash, check out the Random House website.