Falling within the nearly-not-crime-fiction-at-all genre, THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN (aka EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE) explores the nature of identity. How do we learn who we are? Can we choose who to be? Can we truly have multiple identities or is there always a true self? That it does this against the backdrop of the investigation into a young girl’s murder in a Minnesota farming community is almost (but not quite) incidental.
The story unfolds in two time frames, roughly a year apart, and from three different perspectives. We learn of the book’s key dramatic event – Hattie Hoffman’s murder – early on then one thread of the novel flashes back through the months that led up to it, while the other moves forward, showing how hard it is for the people who loved her to discover Hattie’s secrets. That she was not the Hattie they thought they knew. This kind of complicated narrative structure is becoming more popular but not every author carries it off with as much skill as Mejia has done with only her second full-length novel. The structure served a real purpose here; providing most of the tension and allowing the key character developments to be revealed more precisely than a standard narrative might have done.
Henrietta, Hattie to her friends, Hoffman is 17 at the earliest stages of the book and has not long turned 18 when she is murdered. She yearns to live in New York. Possibly as an actress but that’s not as important as just being there: geographically and psychologically far removed from Pine Valley, Minnesota. Hattie is already an actress though, both on stage and off it, easily portraying the girl other people need or want her to be. A doting daughter, a BFF, a footballer’s girlfriend…Is she being manipulative or just trying on skins to find the right one? And either way, do her actions warrant her being stabbed to death?
Del Goodman is Pine Valley’s Sheriff. We don’t know exactly how old he is but he must be pushing retirement age as he served in Vietnam and these events are taking place across 2007-2008. He feels more than usually invested in the case because Hattie’s father, Bud, is his best friend. He has watched Hattie grow up and, without children of his own, he feels close to Hattie and also feels he knows her. Or at least a version of her.
Peter Lund is the high school English teacher. He’s moved to Pine Valley from Minneapolis because his wife needed to move home to look after her ailing mother. He is stifled by small town life and the fact he seems unable to fit in. His interests are shared by few people there – not even his wife as she focuses on caring for her mother and the demanding chicken farm – and their interests are completely foreign to him. Peter’s view of himself as a person is shown to be out of sync with the person he actually is.
THE LAST ACT OF HATTIE HOFFMAN is an unsettling, surprising, compelling and ultimately very satisfying read. The story is a ripper yarn and the characters much more layered than the blurb would have you believe. For the record I prefer ‘our’ title than the US one because it turns out to have several real meanings and seems to more thoroughly encapsulate this excellent story but whatever it’s called where you live I highly recommend this book.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Publisher Quercus, 2017
ISBN 9781784295936
Length 337 pages
Format paperback
Book Series standalone
Source of review copy I bought it
Reactions to Reading 
This does sound intriguing. Bernadette. And you’re right; sometimes that sort of timeline structure doesn’t work well. It takes talent to succeed at it, I think. In any case, this one sounds as though it tells a good story. Consider my interest piqued…
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I will keep an eye out for this one. I am not quite ready to pay for a hardback, yet. I like a complicated narrative structure, so that is a plus. This cover is better than the US cover too. Based on the US cover, I would not touch the book. But then I rarely read books when they come out.
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I didn’t like the US cover much either Tracy. I find it odd when there’s so much difference between what English speaking countries do with books
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OK. This piqued my interest, too. Will put it on my TBR list and see what I can get at the library.
Publishers aim covers and titles at their audiences based on what sells, surveys, and feedback from readers. Based on the best sellers’ lists, too.
When I see the best-sellers lists, even in the New York Times, I wonder what people motivates people over here to read.
And I read Netflix’s list of top movies for their viewers: At the top of the list is The Girl on the Train which is still ont he best-sellers book lists. So, there you go.
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The popularity of the Girl on the train in any format baffles me Kathy but I’m used to not fitting in with the masses.
Covers and blurbs and all the rest I try to ignore because I rarely know what they’re on about with their choices
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The Girl on the Train is a better movie than book. The screenwriter did a good job, and Emily Blunt’s acting is excellent. It’s clearer what is happening and the women’s personalities are also more distinctive.
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OK, scrapped the order of my TBR list and my New Year’s resolution to read more non-mysteries, and am reading this one. It is a page-turner.
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So glad you’re enjoying it Kathy. And it’s almost a non-mystery – lots of other things going on as well 🙂
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