Here Lies A Father

**Here Lies A Father**

by McKenzie Cassidy, Kaylie Jones Books, $16.95.

“No matter how perfect you thought it was, or how perfect you tried to force it to be, you eventually lost something. Not that loss was always a bad thing because it freed you to make new memories, as long as you kept looking forward.”

Ian Daly, a 15-year-old boy, attends his father’s funeral on a Friday in a small, isolated town in New York. While it may be inappropriate to call the ordeal ordinary, given the context of a dead family member, it’s still an occurrence many folks find themselves in. It’s not that common, however, to find out that the father you knew all your life was nothing like the man you perceived him to be.

Coming to the funeral, Ian probably didn’t imagine that he’d discover that his father had two previous marriages before marrying his mother, that he had multiple children that were left behind before having Ian and his older sister. Mckenzie Cassidy’s Here Lies A Father submerges readers into a story filled with secrets, family turmoil, and the bittersweet feelings that come with growing up.

It has all the elements of classic young adult fiction. Throughout the coming-of-age novel, Ian finds himself in limbo. He is expected to be mature in some situations and, in others, he is treated like a precocious child who should mind his own business.

An example of the pressures of expectations would be his relationship with his mother, who has her own issues with Ian’s father that slowly gets unraveled. In her eyes, Ian should know how to carry himself and act - regardless of any emotional distress that may cause actions to be compromised. In those same eyes, Ian should stop digging into his family history because he is “too young” (also because she fears how these secrets will alter his perception of her). It is a part of Ian’s coming of age to realize that the world becomes more complex and strays away from the black-and-white structure of childhood.

There are moments where Ian is so confident in what he knows, but soon after he’s not sure of anything at all. In one chapter, he’s pretty sure that he has the psychology of a teenage girl down pact. When he’s actually confronted with a girl in front of him, an instance being when he flashbacks to a hiking trip he went on, he’s skittish and totally unaware as to what to do. It makes him both irksome and endearing.

One scene in particular wonderfully captures Ian’s conflicted feelings and adolescence: “I wasn’t big enough. I wasn’t strong enough. I wasn’t tough enough… They would all laugh at me. Everyone at school would make fun of me when they heard about it… But something in me, maybe a sense of destiny or adventure, forced my hand to reach for the door. There had always been an instinctual side to me, yearning to be dangerous and uncharacteristic, yet I had learned to bury it deep.”

A protagonist like Ian can remind adult readers what it was like to be a teenager. Teen readers would have the opportunity to see themselves on paper.

There are also fragments of memories that are strung alongside scenes from the present. Ian meets with various relatives and his father’s ex-partners for the first time in his life and learns a lot about himself as he learns about his father’s history. He also has to juggle his changing relationship with his best friend, burgeoning romantic feelings for a female classmate, and his mother who has complexities and secrets of her own.

So much is packed within 262 pages, primarily over the course of one weekend, that it doesn’t really feel like only a short amount of time has passed. The Ian on the last page is not the same character readers were first introduced to. While so much is dissected, the story also manages to not feel excessive. Each scene is necessary and plays a pivotal role in the story’s development. Cassidy does an amazing job at creating a well-paced story and also providing an enriching journey.

Another strength Cassidy’s novel possesses is the execution of the plot twists that don’t fall into clichés or melodrama. I’ll admit - I didn’t even realize a clue was right before my eyes until something about a character turned out to be a lie or another piece of the puzzle is placed. An example of this would be the unreliability of Ian’s narration itself. The story is told from his point of view, so the reader has no choice but to depend on him for understanding; however, little events such as going to a tavern and talking with his Uncle Neil reveal things that make us have to rethink their entire family situation.

The twists aren’t in place for shock value or cheap entertainment. Rather, they contribute to the protagonist’s growth and the overarching theme of shedding childhood innocence. Here Lies A Father kept me on my toes and I was always eager to read another chapter.

The only issue I had with the book was the chapter endings. Some of them felt abrupt or awkward. A few transitions from one chapter to the next didn’t feel organic.

For example, chapter 8 ends with Ian inquiring about his father’s gold pocket watch to his aunt, Marie, who has to stop and think about it for a bit before she tells Ian that she is unable to recall his father ever owning one. The chapter ends there, with the following chapter continuing Ian’s curiosity about the pocket watch. The ending of chapter 8 feels like an incomplete thought while the beginning of chapter 9 feels like it would fit more into the previous chapter. This problem is minor and probably wouldn’t be noticeable by casual readers. It doesn’t have a major impact on the reading experience and it didn’t negate my enjoyment of Cassidy’s work as a whole.

Here Lies A Father is brilliant and thoughtful. It enables readers to reflect on family dynamics, the nature of truth, and what it means to be on the cusp of adulthood. It encourages us to make peace with the past and maintain hope. Finally, it teaches us that it’s okay to be a little lost.

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