My Two Cents (Book Review): LIBBY LIVES by Ali Toothman

I've really gotten into the "good-for-her" subgenre of horror this year, first with Camille Danciu's vicious "On Behalf of All Women," then Christy Aldridge's dark, twisted "The Breaking of Mona Hill." I think my fascination with fem-rage fiction stems from having watched the movie "Promising Young Woman," and being ultimately disappointed in it. In the film, Carey Mulligan is compelling in the titular role, but unfortunately, the script plays it safe in terms of her character's revenge mechanisms, and her motivation never feels sincere because the triggering events didn't happen directly to her.

Books like "Libby Lives" by Ali Toothman solve those conundrums handily. In "Libby Lives," Libby Mae Turner (such a fantastic name - I just loved saying it in my mind) waits tables at a greasy spoon in the quiet small town where she's spent her entire life. Now a young woman in her twenties, she reflects on the troubled past she keeps a carefully guarded secret: an alcoholic, abusive father and, more tragically, a boy who brutally assaults her as a teenager.

Such horrible beginnings may have broken other girls, but instead, Libby somehow summons an inner store of not just strength, but ruthless resolve as well. Rather than run from her abusers, she ultimately fights back, and when she kills the creep who violated her, then his equally reprehensible girlfriend, the reader shares in Libby's sense of triumph and redemption.

From there, Libby manages to escape police suspicion in the murders, and goes on to establish a tentative peace with her father that lasts for the next several years. Along the way, Libby finds the confidence to make friends for the first time, and even dares to fall in love. Everything seems to be going well enough until she discovers a curious note on the floor at the diner where she works with her name scrawled on it.

This signals the start of a slow but inexorable downward spiral for Libby, as people she thought she could trust let her down and betray her. Once again, her peaceful life is in upheaval, and she has to turn again to the bloody methods that she's relied on in the past to safeguard herself.

I didn't realize this was author Ali Toothman's first book until I finished reading it. I never would have guessed. She writes with the confidence of a seasoned storyteller, and she deftly moves the story in unexpected directions the reader never sees coming. While there are certainly trigger moments, the gore is never over-the-top or gratuitous. Libby is a wonderfully realized character, filled with hopes and dreams that start out ingenuous in the beginning, and evolve with time and trauma into more realistic expectations. And even though she does some very terrible things, the people she does them to have it coming, and the reader can't help but cheer for her -- and worry as well, as the police begin to grow suspicious, the investigations creeping ever closer to Libby's front door.

(And don't get me started on the gorgeous cover artwork and what has to be the most beautiful layout design I've ever seen in either ebook or print! I am a sucker for a beautiful book, and "Libby Lives" doesn't disappoint.)

"Libby Lives" is a dark fable reminding us that sometimes peace of mind and security aren't things we're guaranteed, and are often goals we must fight tooth and nail for. Or, in Libby's case, with a knife and baseball bat.

"Libby Lives" is available here.