Book Review: Any Good Thing
This is a book that deeply explores dark psychological concepts—things like depression, PTSD, and other mental and emotional struggles. This may sound morbid, but I actually found these components to be the best points made in the story. Maybe its because I have a Bachelor’s in psychology, or because I appreciate a well written contemporary that does more than present a really sad story or a really emotional romance. Despite the grittiness of this emotional journey, I think what I liked best about this novel was the inclusion of faith. If you aren’t a Christian or you aren’t able to be open-minded and accepting of other people’s beliefs, then I’ll warn you now, this is not the book for you. But I promise it will be worth the read if you can set aside your own reservations and appreciate the story written on the pages.
Any Good Thing follows protagonist Jack Calhoun in this southern, Christian, coming-of-age tale. We see what life is like in a small town and we see what war is like on the battleground, then we see the wreckage of war—the scars beneath the surface of skin and bone and fake smiles—and we end with a glimpse of a man who has done all he can to find healing, in more ways than one. This story tugs at your heart without being sappy—and that’s something I appreciated most. I hate stories that throw things in for the sake of shock or emotion; everything about this book has reason and meaning, there is nothing here just to move the story along.
All that being said, I feel like there’s A LOT of story in this book. If I had to choose a complaint, I’d definitely say Any Good Thing is very long, but it isn’t unnecessarily long. One thing I’ve noticed about contemporary fiction and coming-of-age stories is they tend to get weighed down by authors simply showing off their impressive verbiage, which is cool for all the wordy pedants out there, but I’m not a wordy pedant; I’m a reader with a busy schedule. Now … Rancatore did not weigh down her story at all, I want to make that clear. I appreciated the depth and value of each word in this book BUT I will say there were quite a lot of words.
Since we’re talking about words, I have to add that the writing was really good. I enjoyed the style because it really matched with that southern sort of feel you got throughout the story. Rancatore put together an emotional and pressing journey while maintaining a small sense of joy along the way. As a Christian reader, I was very pleased to have been able to review this work.
I would recommend this to YA and adult readers, especially those who enjoy Christian and contemporary fiction. Anyone looking for a good tear-jerker may have found it here.
*The Rebel Christian received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*