Jessica Lost Her Wobble – a Review

Jessica moves from New York to a small island to start her life anew. But all is not as it seems. The cover for Jessica Lost Her Wobble shows a rather peaceful scene. Does it fit the book? Yes, it does, but In no way does it hint at what is going on beneath the surface.

This story takes place in the 50s and 60s. There are cars, buses, and airplanes, but cell phones and the internet haven’t arrived yet.

Jessica is trying to escape her past and the tragedies she has lived through. Stressful things happen to everyone, but her failed marriage, the death of her son, and not having a good relationship with her daughter have all added up to being too much to handle. She must escape them, escape everything that reminds her of them. No one would miss her, and she really must get away.

She moves from New York to a small island community. The majority of its inhabitants are in their fifties and sixties.

I thought the book was very well-written, but it didn’t hold my attention that well until Amy enters the story and makes friends with Jessica. The book then became hard to put down. Amy is much younger, and Jessica’s friendship with Amy makes her take an even harder look at herself and her relationship with her own daughter.

Once Jessica is living on the island, she and her daughter do reconcile. Her daughter buys her a journal, and she decides to write about her life. Romance, memories, and hope for the future fill her life and her journal. Maybe writing about her life will help her to realize who she is.

surprise, flickr

Jessica Lost Her Wobble does a great job of keeping the twist a secret until the very end. At first, I was mad and tempted to throw my Kindle, but I really didn’t want to risk breaking it. This book turned out to be more of a great psychological story. I didn’t think the twisty ending made any sense when I first read it, but I had forgotten something. “The Prologue” had completely slipped my mind because I had become so involved with what was going on with Jessica and the other characters. That alone should give you a hint as to how well the author developed these characters.

I bought my copy of Jessica Lost Her Wobble from Amazon. If you are a fan of literary fiction, women’s fiction, or stories with a psychological twist, you will love this book. Even if you aren’t fans of those genres, this book should appeal to you. My favorite genres are horror and mystery; a psychological twist is a  bonus.

This book about how Jessica lost her wobble is captivating. If you would like your own copy, I’ve provided an Amazon link below.

Amazon Link: Jessica Lost Her Wobble

Recommended Article: The Missing Butler and Other Life Mysteries – a Review

imagination, flickr

Favorite Sentences:
People excused authors for aloofness or detachment from life.

How could she find herself when so many pieces were scattered and just plain missing?

For Aunt Agatha to hold in a thought or opinion would be like every strand of Jessie’s hair to suddenly fall into place.

Their marriage could be defined as a slow, destructive process, suicide in installments.

She wrote about her past, but then, her pen was guided like a planchette across a Ouija board to the present.

Sabarmati-Ashram, wikimedia commons

New Words Learned:
ashram – a secluded building, often the residence of a guru, used for religious retreat or instruction in Hinduism

auspicious – promising success; propitious; opportune; favorable

ubiquitous – existing everywhere or seeming to be found or seen everywhere; constantly or very commonly observed or encountered

About the Author:
J. Schlenker, a late blooming author, lives with her husband out in the splendid center of nowhere in the Kentucky foothills of Appalachia where the only thing to disturb her writing is croaking frogs and the occasional sounds of hay being cut in the fields. Her first novel, Jessica Lost Her Wobble, published in December 2015, was selected as a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and was awarded five stars from Readers’ Favorite. One of her short stories, “The Missing Butler,” received honorable mention in the first round of the NYC Competition.