Salvage
3/5
In Salvage we follow Owen Saddler on an investigation of his sister's drowning in Chapel Lake – a man-made lake that covers an abandoned town. While the death was ruled an accident, Owen is doubtful: why would his sister be diving in this strange town and since she was such a good diver, what could have possibly gone wrong? Along the way, Owen uncovers secrets about the town and about his past.
Sincere thanks to Booktrope, NetGalley, and Duncan Ralston for a copy of Salvage in exchange for an honest review.
Probably the scariest/creepiest scene in Salvage comes right at the beginning, which would be amazing if it were followed by equally scary/creepy scenes, but unfortunately, this is not the case. While some scenes and images in Salvage were striking – for example, a submerged church and an underwater city – the novel didn't strike me as particularly atmospheric or spooky. The small town was two-dimensional and the characters therein were a bit stereotypical. This then puts the focus on plot or character development to, dare I say it, salvage the book and unfortunately both those elements were a bit lacking.
Character-wise, Owen was a bit too naive to come off as realistic. While continually confronted with the supernatural, Owen stubbornly, and unconvincingly, continues to believe he is dreaming or having minor hallucinations. Honestly, after the third time something tries to kill you or you find wet footsteps next to your bed, in an empty house, you have to wonder if maybe there is something real going on. Even if not, and I am being unfair since I know something supernatural is going on and think Owen should as well, I still think we need a more plausible account of how he would deal with actually losing his mind as opposed to simply shrugging off some pretty freaky psychotic episodes. Also problematic for me was that his depression rang false. He suddenly self-diagnoses what is later described as at least moderately severe depression by finally noticing his posture was deflated (and similar surface retrospective observations). Maybe I missed a description of Owen's feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness or problems enjoying his usual activities, but if not, this is an odd way to stumble on a mental health issue. This is especially weird as Ralston remarks he suffered from depression in the acknowledgments section. As far as the other characters, well, their motives seemed to always serve plot and in general, they were not fully realized.
The plot was also not fantastic – it wasn't bad, but it wasn't stunning either. Ralston adds a lot of twists and turns, but they didn't really misdirect reader (or at least me) in any way. I found it sort of obvious what the solution to the mystery was early on and even as more details were revealed, it seemed easy to anticipate how they would factor into the ultimate reveal. Then there was this one thing that drove me absolutely crazy – it appears the whole mystery is solved in a journal that Owen finds relatively early on, yet he does not just read the entire journal, but instead does a whole lot of unnecessary investigating to find out what the journal would have just told him if he sat down for a few hours with a Scotch and decent lighting. I can't say much more about this without giving something away, but trust me here, not reading the journal is not only bizarre, but fully improbable.
Despite all these criticisms, which I know must come off as fairly harsh, Salvage wasn't awful or even particularly bad. Overall, it was a solid, average, 3-star read that has all the problems of an average read, but an interesting enough style and substance to keep a reader going.
