Reviewed by Emma Crowley
When farmer’s daughter Irene meets Theodore at a village dance, sparks fly instantly. The war has brought him all the way from Louisiana to build a US airbase just across her father’s fields, but as they sway together, there is nothing else in the world. Only his gentle touch and his deep brown eyes.
But being together comes at a price. As Theodore is Black, the might of the US Air Force is against them, and all the members of the little village community disapprove of their relationship. And they will all go to terrible lengths to tear the two young lovers apart…
Decades later, heartbroken Ruby is back at her family’s crumbling farmhouse for the first time in years, after the loss of her beloved grandmother Irene. The roof has fallen in, family photographs are damaged – and her grandmother’s jewellery is nowhere to be found.
When Ruby uncovers her grandmother’s waterlogged diaries, she discovers that Irene treasured one piece of lost jewellery above all. A locket from a man called Theodore. And the missing locket holds the key to unravelling a heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother’s life…
Is someone in the village hiding the locket to keep the truth about Irene and Theodore buried? And can Ruby find a way to honour her grandmother’s memory – or in digging up the pain of the war, will she tear her family apart?
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Locket to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
The Locket is the new book from Natalie Meg Evans set during World War Two. It’s told in the dual timeline format which works very well as the story deftly moves between the war years and the present day. There are a lot of strong themes throughout this book which sadly still exist today and I felt they were perfectly woven into the story. Racial discrimination and segregation, abuse of power and cruelty are just a few themes that spring to mind and to be honest I didn’t expect to encounter such strong emotions whilst reading this book. The pitching of said themes was expertly done. I didn’t at any stage feel as if they were being forced upon you or thrown in your face instead they melded well into certain events in the story and not everything was piled upon the reader at once. Over the course of a story that got better and better as it went along the reader can see the bigger picture starting to emerge and one thing is for certain you shouldn’t take things at face value. Instead, the main character in the present day, Ruby, has to work that little bit harder to uncover the truth as she searches for her grandmother’s locket. In doing so, she will uncover a remarkable story that will shed a light on her family history and through the process hopefully healing will occur from trauma.
The book opens with a brief prologue in the small village of Flixfield in Suffolk. It’s 1943 and the residents are feeling the effects of the war. A new American airbase is opening nearby and GI’s have been sent ahead to prepare the ground in order to get the site built. Irene is 19 and is attending a local dance in the village hall. She feels she lives a boring humdrum life living with her parents who have a farm whilst she works at the local jam and pickle factory. The war has put paid to any hopes of her leaving the village and the thoughts of being a farmers wife for the remainder of her days sends shivers through her spine.
Local farmer Norman, who is in late 20’s, has his eyes on Ruby and is determined to have her as his wife. Norman is forceful and controlling and to be quite honest at times I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I know social norms and expectations were very different at the time and society had certain rules and presumptions in place but still the carry on and the talk from Norman was quite frankly ridiculous. I felt that Irene was being backed into a corner and that at some points her parents wished for her to marry him and then at other junctures they saw the light and were conscious of their daughters long term wellbeing and happiness. Norman is a bully but also a coward at the same time. He fails or either just turns a blind eye to what is going at right under his nose and because of this there will be serious repercussions for several people, one person in particular who I wouldn’t have thought, and these actions and total disregard will affect people for countless years.
I loved that Irene was forceful and strong willed. She knew what she wanted in life and always followed her heart and mind even if society was contriving against her. She wasn’t going to be pushed into any corner like a meek lamb and although she has to hide a fair bit of what she goes through in the book, her heart was always in one place and despite circumstances changing against her she always remained true to her one love. That person being Theo, whom she meets at the village dance. Sergeant Theo Robinson has recently arrived from Georgia, America to help construct the airbase and when Irene sets her eyes upon him she is instantly smitten. I thought this quote was perfect in summing up how Irene felt about Theo. ’When someone looks back at you as though they see you. Really see you, with all your layers, corners and secrets, you cannot go back to being Irene who works at the jam and pickle factory’.
The only problem with Irene developing these feelings, well the problem according to society, is that Theo is black and here is where the themes of racism and discrimination begin to rear their ugly head. No one is happy that Irene would dare to fall in love with a back man and from this many issues and problems arise. From this point on, there are innumerable twists and turns to Irene’s story and to say much more regarding this would spoilt things. Suffice to say, I became totally caught up in everything unfolding and I found myself racing through the chapters eager to see what would happen and of course to discover how Irene’s story connected to what Ruby was experiencing in the present. Irene and Theo’s aspect of the plot was brilliantly developed and explored and it makes you realise how important it is now that we are allowed our own choices as to who we love.
In the present day, Ruby is newly arrived in Flixfield from France. Her life has imploded. She has lost her job and her fiancée, the circumstances of which are explained in more detail later on in the book and now she has returned to sell Apple Tree Farm. She had inherited the house from her grandmother Irene and her mother Amanda, who lives in France, had gotten jewellery which mysteriously went missing when being sent to her. Tenants have left the house in a state and Ruby knows work will have to be done before it can be sold. Ruby hasn’t been back to the area since her grandmother’s funeral as pandemic restrictions curtailed travel. An unfortunate incident on her first night there leads her to meeting Will Keelbrook, a handyman of sorts who can turn his hand to anything. She soon discovers that he is the godson of her Great Aunt Philippa who lives across the road at Westumble Farm. Things between Philippa, Ruby and Amanda have not been good and there is a lot of resentment and anger there mostly on Philippa’s part.
Philippa is now 88 and as cantankerous as ever. She has a huge chip on her shoulder and to say she is not friendly is an understatement. She never seems to say exactly what people want to hear. Instead, she skirts around issues and the reader can easily see that she is telling lies and hiding secrets. When Ruby discovers diaries from Irene that were nearly burnt in a suitcase, a whole can of worms is opened up and a fascinating yet heart-breaking story unfolds. Philippa certainly knows more than she is letting on and I loved that Ruby kept pushing her to answer the many questions that arise the further she reads through the diaries. What happened to the locket that Ruby reads about that was given to Irene by Theo? Why were the diaries burnt? What happened all those years ago during the war that led to secrecy, trauma, bitterness, resentment and anger? Ruby is determined to dig deep to find the answers to these questions and so much more. In the process of doing so she learns an awful lot about her family history with numerous surprising revelations. The reveals just keep coming in the last quarter or so of the book and I was enjoying every minute of it. It was emotional and shocking and you just feel immense sadness for all involved that things occurred the way they did.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Locket, I felt it was something just that little bit different from what I have read before from Natalie Meg Evans and I appreciated this and the time spent researching and developing the story. Tackling the themes in the manner in which she did was brilliant and it shone alight on an aspect of the war and society that I don’t give enough thought to. Irene and Theo really get under your skin but in a good way and you are rooting for Ruby the entire time that she will find the answers and that some form of reconciliation and acceptance will occur. With the nights drawing in and the weather turning, The Locket is definitely a book to curl up as you will enjoy every moment.
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