Review of Blasted, by Kate Story

So I finished Blasted by Kate Story.


I think this book is a simple, classic example of Magic Realism, where weird or magical things happen in a "normal" setting. Ruby currently lives in Toronto, but spent her childhood in Newfoundland. The story goes from present-day Toronto to the St. John's of the early eighties or so. I cannot say much about the description of St. John's, but the current Toronto is described from the perspective of someone who lives there (I like this type of narrative, it's what got me hooked on British chick-lit, because it described London as I knew it).

In the beginning I was enjoying the setup and the descriptions of the places, though I thought that the language could have been funnier or lighter to describe some of the situations. As the story progresses, stranger and stranger things start to happen. I found these interesting in the beginning, but after a while I just got frustrated thinking "ok, I understand, get on with the story". As the story went on, the main character, Ruby, reminded me more and more of the brat girl in Elise Levine's Requests and Dedications, and I started to get annoyed.

The book is enjoyable and, as I say, I loved the description of the places. The magic realism elements were fun as well, and probably well-researched (this I have to assume, since I know nothing about Newfoundland mythology and superstitions). But I believe the situations were kept going for a bit too long. I just got annoyed by the book and by the main character. It could have ended 100 pages earlier, I believe.