“Everything is a diary….Everything is important. Every detail. We just don’t know why yet.”
When I bought Diary, I thought I’d made a mistake and gotten an uninteresting book. The mistake I truly made was judging the book by the description on the back cover.
Diary is an incredible book--even worthy of literary merit in my opinion. The story is about Misty Marie Wilmot: mother, failed artist, and maybe soon to be widow. Her husband has tried to kill himself, but not before warning her with subtle clues of what her future will hold.
The story evolves into a mystery where you as the reader uncover the various details along with Misty. These “seemingly useless” details lead to the climactic finish. If you have not read this book but plan to, remember what Peter--Misty’s husband--tells her, “[details are] only useless until you put them all together.”
Diary is a great mix of mystery, revelation, and predestination that will leave you stunned, bewildered, and asking for more. To describe the book much more would most likely dilute the experience for the reader, so I will leave it at that.
I recommend this book because it is not just entertainment or a good mystery. There is a sense of…questioning what you thought you already knew. Existentialism seems an appropriate word to add here. You and Misty both are surprised by what she uncovers about her own life. And, even though the book is fiction, it feels like the story is leaking into the real world. What if there really was an island like the one Misty lives on? What if the letter at the very end of the book were a real cover letter for the original manuscript?
It’s books like Diary that go the extra mile and break free from the stereotype of what you expect in a mystery that promote progress. What else but originality can stimulate progress in both the creative world and in the mind?
