Rating: 5 stars
It’s the cardinal rule of reading (and life!)
Don’t judge a book by its cover.
But come on, look at this one.
So, yes, the cover is what originally attracted me to Valentine, but when I did my research, I saw that it was more than just a book with a pretty face. Authors like Ann Patchett and Elizabeth Gilbert were praising it, and the TODAY Book Club chose it as a Read With Jenna pick, not to mention Book of the Month chose it as their literary pick of the month, which is where I got my copy. This book is the real deal…
If you’ve never heard of Book of the Month, it’s a subscription service where you can choose one or more books in a variety of categories (literary fiction, historical fiction, contemporary fiction, thriller, romance, etc…) If you love to read and want good book recommendations, or you’re thinking about reading more, I highly recommend it. I tore into my copy of Valentine as soon as it arrived in the mail.
Valentine is a story about Odessa, Texas, a small town on the cusp of the next great oil boom. It’s a story told through the alternating points of view of a handful of unique, indelible women. We begin with Gloria Ramírez the day after Valentine’s Day. She is bruised, battered, beaten, and barely alive, and she appears on the front doorstep of Mary Rose Whitehead’s ranch house. We discover that she is the victim of a vicious rape. Unflinchingly raw, this first chapter describes the pain, fear, and helplessness of what it felt like to be a woman, especially a Mexican woman, in 1976 in Odessa, Texas. It’ll have you on the edge of your seat. This first chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Immediately, I fell in love with the writing. I can’t continue this review without addressing that first. If you’re looking for a book that’s well written and has a good story, this is the one for you. Wetmore’s prose is spectacular. She knows exactly how much to say and when to say it. She keeps you wanting more. She has the ability to talk about scenery without being dull or dragging it on – I was able to visualize Odessa Texas exactly as she intended. When she writes about the purple skies and the pumpjacks and the oil-fields, I saw it all.
It’s a To Kill a Mockingbird tale set in West Texas. Debra Ann (or D.A.) is our Scout Finch, but the story isn’t all about her. There’s a Boo Radly element towards the end too, and just like TKAM, our small-town characters jump off the page. More than that, they are delectably pick-a-part-able. So we’ll start with my favorite.
Corrine. It’s hard not to choose her as my favorite. She adds much-needed humor to an otherwise serious plot, and because of her, we get the kind of raw emotion only self-deprecating humor can provide. Out of all the characters, she gets the most flashbacks. She is a widow, and through her flashbacks, we get an intimate look at how she lost her husband, Potter. One scene, in particular, got my dear tucks working. It’s New Year’s Eve and Corrine and Potter are standing on their porch watching the sunset, realizing this will be their last New Year together. It made my heart ache, and it made me realize that sometimes when you love someone so much they become the reason you’re terrified of dying. To live a life with them not in it, or dye before you’re finished loving them… Yeah, cue the tears.
Suzzane is a character that can easily get overlooked. You meet her as the kind of lady who will stop you in the middle of the sidewalk and reprimand you for not wearing a jacket in the cold or not having sunblock on in the summer. She is a mother on a mission. Her mission is to be the best mother and best lady of Odessa anyone has ever seen. It’s an interesting character and I think a lot of us have come across the kind of person before. It’s hard to sympathize with a character like that but Wetmore does it beautifully. I found myself feeling for her when in real life I’d probably think she was nutso.
Mary Rose Whitehead. In some ways, she is the main character of Valentine. She is multilayered and agitated and worrisome and is the only person in Odessa who stands up for Gloria and believes that she was raped. Slowly, because of that incident, we watch her unravel at the seams. Her interaction with Gloria on her doorstep after she was brutally raped changes her forever. She vows from that moment forward to protect her daughter Aimee even if that means Aimee will hate her for the rest of her life. When we get to the climax, Mary Rose is so clouded with grief, anxiety, and exhaustion that she makes a drastic mistake. A mistake that makes for a very compelling ending.
Speaking of which, I love when a story brings mother nature into the picture. While Mary Rose Whitehead and several of our favorite characters are battling out an intense climax, a storm rages in the background. I don’t know about you, but that’s like story porn to me.
Valentine has all the marks of a classic. I can very easily see this as required reading in schools. Don’t let deter you, though. It’s the kind of story that becomes timeless and for good reason. It’s haunted me ever since I finished. I can’t stop thinking about the story and the characters. Even as I’m reading new books I find myself missing this one. I want to be back in the characters’ lives. I want to re-live it all over again. It’s a haunting tale of race and class and relies heavily on character development. It reminded me of Beloved by Toni Morison. I’ve never been able to forget that story.
I don’t think I’ll forget this one either.
The last two chapters are absolutely spellbinding, especially that second-to-last-chapter. It ends on a very satisfying note, and like other readers I talked to, it’s tempting to want the story to end there. But Wetmore had other ideas in mind. She continued it one chapter longer, ending the way we started – with Gloria Ramírez. I understand the reason behind this. It’s like T.V. shows choosing to write the second-to-last episode as the “finale” and the last episode as the “pick up the pieces”. Valentine had a similar aesthetic.
And it made for one of the most captivating books I’ve read in 2020. So, five huge from stars.
P.S. If you are interested in BOOK OF THE MONTH click here to join for only $5.
Valentine can be purchased on Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, or Bookshop, where every purchase supports independent bookstores.
