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In Maud Casey's debut novel, THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, Isabelle is a woman who
falls into that female, single, 30-something, mid-life crisis. Aiming high for hilarity,
Casey introduces a barrage of unusual characters meant to keep readers engaged. There's
Isabelle's date crazy mother Adeline; their very odd, peeping Tom of a neighbor, Raymond;
her self-help addicted boss Marla; and Dennis, her bad boy ex-boyfriend from high school.
The novel starts off with Isabelle at work for a phone company in San Francisco. Unhappy
with her extremely boring job, Isabelle is pondering her life and how unfulfilled and
unimportant she is when she begins to lose it. With no warning, she begins taking off her
clothes and is naked and making a copy of herself by the time her boss arrives. Her
reasoning is that she doesn't really need to be there and that a copy of her will suffice.
This scene happens on the second page of the book, far too early in the novel for readers
to feel a connection with the despondent Isabelle. Needless to say, she is fired on the
spot and, without a job, must return to Standardsville, the small Midwestern town where
she grew up. Isabelle moves in with her sexy single mother Adeline and, in a role
reversal, she spends her nights at home watching television with Raymond while mom dates
an endless stream of men met through personal ads. Isabelle spends her days working for a
temp agency, where career counselor Marla sends her out as an elusive mystery shopper. The
temp job is the one exciting part of Isabelle's otherwise dull life and one of the few
exciting things in the book.
On one of her first mystery shopping assignments, Isabelle comes face to face with her old
high school flame Dennis. Their once tumultuous relationship seems to take off where it
left off, despite the fact that Dennis has a new girl. Just as Isabelle deals with her
feelings for Dennis, she also begins to have feelings for her strange next door neighbor
Raymond. While Dennis is wild, exciting and forbidden, Raymond is quiet, mild mannered and
seems to be completely accessible. Isabelle finds herself drawn to Dennis and their shared
past but she is also charmed by the warmth and comfort that Raymond offers. As fate would
have it, Dennis is interested and Raymond isn't, which leads Isabelle to wonder why
Raymond spies on her house if he isn't interested in her.
Things go from bad to worse for Isabelle as she begins to lose it (once again) on the job.
Her personal life isn't faring well either --- she's been rebuffed by Raymond and has
lured Dennis into cheating on his new girlfriend. Her mother has finally found a diamond
in the rough so to speak and has little time to spend with Isabelle. To make matters
worse, Adeline tells Isabelle that she must move out at the end of summer. Depressed with
every aspect of her life, Isabelle is cruising towards a mini-breakdown when the sullen
Raymond beats her to the punch and is rushed into a psychiatric hospital.
Raymond's meltdown forces Isabelle to remain strong and reevaluate her life. She learns
some important truths about herself --- Dennis isn't the man for her, temping isn't the
job for her and, most importantly, she needs to move away and create a life of her own.
THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME is one of those books that has an interesting plot, but
everything moves too fast for readers to become fully engaged; Isabelle's outrageous
behavior happens too early in the book for us to understand her angst. The unusual and
refreshing characters keep the plot moving as does the temp job, but in the end it isn't
enough to keep this book afloat. It's a given that Isabelle needs to move away from
Standardsville, so when this is her big realization the book falls flat. As readers, we
want Isabelle to make it through this bleak period and to have a life-changing epiphany,
but disappointingly it never quite happens.
--- Reviewed by Megan Kalan
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