The Gilmore Guide to Books

Connecting Books and Readers One Review at a Time

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Reviews
    • Reviews by Author
    • Reviews by Title
    • Reviews by Genre
  • More Books
  • Policies
    • Review Policy
    • Privacy Policy

The Preservationist: A Novel by Justin Kramon

May 26, 2017

The Preservationist: A Novel by Justin Kramon
Published by Pegasus Books
Publication date: September 15th 2014
Genres: Fiction, Suspense
three-stars

preservationist

 

She’d never been looked at that way before, with that peculiar mix of intensity and distance.

Sam is a thirty-nine-year-old kitchen worker at Stradler College. He’s led a life of movement from one place to another and one job to another at each of these places but turning forty is starting to press on him. Shouldn’t he be more settled? Shouldn’t he find a more grown-up career? After all, his boyish good looks aren’t going to work on this demographic much longer. Thankfully, he meets Julia, a freshman haunted by an accident that robbed her of her brother and her abilities as a musician. It is Julia’s openness and need that draws Sam in in The Preservationist by Justin Kramon. She gives him a sense of purpose and seems to find his free spirit attitude towards life refreshing. Unfortunately, he’s not alone in his pursuit of the fragile Julia. She has already met and started dating another freshman named Marcus and when Sam does succeeds in taking her away, Marcus makes it clear that he will be watching Sam.

Initially, The Preservationist comes off as a troubled-girl-finally-finds-redemption-and-love novel but as the odd and unnerving events pile up in Julia’s life it is clear this is not the case. Everyone has a secret and Kramon hands out the clues like garlic—a bit too strong in the beginning but gets better as it cooks. Is it one of the men or is Julia herself a danger? By telling the story from three points of view, the reliability of any one narrator is suspect. In this way, Kramon teases the reader but once the masks are gone and pretenses abandoned the novel moves quickly to a satisfying (if not unexpected) ending. If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers than The Preservationist is a good choice for beginning-of-summer light reading.

three-stars

Related Posts

  • Related Posts
  • Same Genre
  • 3 Star Books
thrillers in the blood
In the Blood: A Novel
ill will
Ill Will: A Novel by Dan Chaon
body lies
The Body Lies by Jo Baker
unbecoming
Unbecoming
bad
The Bad Miss Bennet
fates
Fates and Traitors
perfect
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
white
White Houses
I Liked My Life
mercy
The Unraveling of Mercy Louis
girl through glass
Girl Through Glass
The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee
The Shining Girls
The Shining Girls
tumbledown
Tumbledown: A Novel
mina
The Last Story of Mina Lee

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Pegasus, suspense, thriller

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Save time and subscribe via email

No time to keep checking for new reviews? Enter your email address to subscribe and receive notifications of new posts by email. No spam!

Currently Reading

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
by Emily Nagoski
The Dutch House
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
by Adrienne Brodeur

goodreads.com

Affiliate Disclosure

I’m an affiliate for Indiebound and Amazon. If you click on a link that takes you to any of these sites and make a purchase I’ll earn a small fee, which goes towards the costs of maintaining this site. Your support is appreciated. Thank you!

Archives

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in