Review: Cleah's Bequest

Cleah's Bequest by Mari Matthias
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mari Matthias shifts away from the historical fiction of her debut novel, in favor of a more contemporary piece (technically still a period piece, though, as it's set in 2014-15) following the adult children of Cleah Lucky as they carry out the intensely detailed requests in her will for a year in order to receive their intended inheritances. On the surface, Cleah makes it seem as if her sole goal is to get her children to have a good strong family relationship once again, but we're seeing the whole thing from the perspectives of her children, whichever one has to carry Cleah's urn as part of the Bequest. They were estranged from Cleah for a reason, and to them, the Bequest feels like a string of final middle fingers from a cold, controlling, egotistical mother, whose urn lurks in the background of most scenes and creeps the hell out of the kids and even their own kids.

The whole thing would make a great movie, following all this family drama - hell, in the days while I was reading this book, I was completing a rewatch of the old TV show Wonderfalls, and the Tyler family's dynamic was just similar enough to Cleah's family (particularly the kids, being two daughters and one son) for me to take notice despite the difference in genre. And if they do make a movie out of this one, I would hope they actually film in the real Oregon and Washington locations - Portland, Vancouver, Stevenson, and some side trips to the Gorge (including Multnomah Falls and Hood River), plus the Hood to Coast Relay serving as the climax.

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