A – Z hot topics in John Marrs’ What Lies Between Us

I read What Lies Between Us, by John Marrs. This is a creative book review, with teasers on A to Z of hot topics discussed in the book.

A –

Maggie lives in the attic because her daughter Nina Simmonds has confined her there.

Nina likes ABBA’s songs and she usually plays them during dinner.

A is for Alistair Simmonds, Maggie’s husband and Nina’s father. Maggie lied that he left them to live in another town called Huddersfield.

B –

Nina bullies Maggie. She feels empowered as she blames Maggie for past incidents.

B is also for broken wills. Both Maggie and Nina suffered from broken wills to live properly.

Nina steals books from her workplace, the public library, to bring home for Maggie to read to pass her time.

C –

C is for chains, which Nina uses to keep Maggie upstairs in the attic or second floor.

Nina thinks Maggie is the mouse and she is the cat, trying to catch

Maggie thinks she has cancerous lumps and tells Nina, who doesn’t care about this and didn’t arrange any medical check-up for her mom.

D –

Nina and Maggie play their game of domesticities.

D stands for the dance routine which Nina sometimes forces Maggie to participate in, when the CD plays ABBA’s songs.

D is for Dylan, Nina’s second baby. Maggie lied to Nina about the baby being a female and dying. The baby was a male. She gave up Dylan for adoption. Later, Dylan, nicknamed Bobby, searched for Nina and contacted her.

E –

E is for Erica, Maggie’s friend. Erica is mom to Saffron, Nina’s female friend. Nina used Saffron as an excuse to sleepover with Jon.

Before Nina passes books for Maggie to read, she has already read them and torn off pages which discuss about escape routes for characters imprisoned or trapped in situations.

F –

F for failed relationships and food. Nina uses the presence or absence of food, as punishment for Maggie.

Foods and cooking are of Nina’s choice. Usually only dinner is cooked. Nina packs breakfast and lunch for her Mom before she leaves for work.

F for flashbacks; which start at Chapter Six, when the narrative returned to the day when a major event happened.

F is for the fire.

G –

G is for game. Initially, Maggie wins at least some moves when Nina was young. Until Nina chains her up. Then Nina seems to be winning, until Maggie makes her last move, resulting in the law closing in on Nina.

H

H is for hygiene, which Nina has denied Maggie, by chaining her in her room. The old woman expels waste into a bucket and the smell is prevalent in the attic bedroom. Nina empties the bucket once after 2 days.

I

J

J for Jon, the singer who has caught Nina’s heart.

K –

The kitchen is Nina’s kingdom as she is in charge of cooking. Sometimes Maggie offers to help with the dishes after dinner.

L –

L stands for Lolita, Jon’s nickname for Nina.

Nina works in the public library.

One character has leukemia.

M –

Maggie used to be motherly and over-protective, as she planned and executed Nina’s first miscarriage.

M stands for the males who have abandoned Nina, like her dad and boyfriend Jon Hunter.

Maggie is like a killing machine, eliminating Nina’s first baby, then Sally Ann Mitchell, and Nina’s supposed baby girl Dylan.

M for Moxydogrel, a sedative which Maggie fed Nina, to keep her drowsy and sleeping most of the time. Maggie didn’t want Nina snooping around, trying to find out more about Dylan.

Maggie’s biggest mistake was keeping old documents and clothes in suitcases. She underestimated Nina and assumed her daughter would not snoop around to discover the truths.

Maggie’s narrative says Nina hit Alistair on his head and killed him.

Maggie says Nina reached the pregnant Sally Ann and knifed her and Jon.

N –

N is for Nina, the antagonist of Maggie, the protagonist.

N is for negative reinforcement, which Nina uses, as she puanishes her mom for every challenge to her power.

Maggie used to share Thursday afternoons with her neighbor Elsie, drinking coffee and chatting. After Nina chained her up, she stopped interacting with her neighbors.

Nina justifies her chaining and locking up of her mother, by referring to Charlotte Bronte’s quote, “I can be on guard against my enemies, but God deliver me from my friends.” (Marrs, p. 23)

Nina discovers suitcases in the basement that contained old documents. She learned Maggie passed off Dylan Simmonds as her own son and gave him up for adoption. She found Alistair’s old clothes, wallet and cash. She realizes he could not have left without taking his personal identity card, credit card, driver’s licence and passport. Then she had a suspicion about where he could be. She uses a spade to dig in the flower bed and finds a skeleton.

Nina assumes Maggie killed Alistair because her mother didn’t mail all those letters to Alistair.

O –

P –

P is for the pedophile Jon Hunter was, preying on young school girls who are mesmerized by his fame.

P stands for Nina’s two pregnancies.

Q –

After Nina usurped the role of Matriarch from her mom Maggie, she became the Queen of the Household.

R

S –

S for Maggie’s spectacles frame, which are broken after a screw from an arm fell out. Maggie has to hold that arm of her specs frame, in order to wear them for reading.

Nina steals Maggie’s personal possessions to punish her. She has removed Maggie’s gold clock, perfumes, make-up items, pillows and etc.

Sally Ann Mitchell was with Jon when Maggie visited. Poor Sally became the sacrificial lamb.

T –

Maggie’s TV set in her attic bedroom was broken for a long time and Nina didn’t get it repaired.

Nina has a tattoo on her lip, on the inside of her lip. She had it done to show her commitment to Jon.

Nina is a thief, stealing books from her workplace, the library.

U –

U for underaged smoking and sex.

V –

V stands for vascular dementia, which Nina claims Maggie has. That is her excuse to explain Maggie’s absence from her neighbors. Nina also says Maggie has gone away, to live in her sister’s house.

W –

What Lies Between Us? What lies between Nina and Maggie? They are Alistair and Jon.

The reader has the liberty to decide who is the winner of this complex psychological game.

X

Y

Z

Related:

(1) https://artmater.com/how-were-nina-jon-thwarted-by-maggie/

More will be added to this book review later.