Book Review

By Derryll White

McTiernan, Dervla (2023).  What Happened To Nina?

This is an old story, with many new twists, at least for some.

Nina Fraser goes out climbing with her boyfriend, breaks up with him, and disappears. Her parents Leeanne and Andy worry and start to search for her.  Old story right?  But then it goes off the rails into the whole new world of social media. #whathappenedtonina becomes the rallying point, with a very expensive PR firm hired by Simon’s wealthy parents.

Her ex-boyfriend, sheltered by wealth and privilege, needs to be protected. The PR firm develops sophisticated misinformation campaigns to reflect public concern and doubt onto Nina’s parents and away from Simon.  It all starts to sound like Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine campaign. To paraphrase George Orwell, “This is a cruel new world.”

Simon’s father, Rory, is a wealthy international businessman well aware of today’s security issues – surveillance cameras, tracking devices, phones, etc.  Simon’s mother, Jamie, is a social media maven very aware and adept at forming and shaping public opinion. Nina’s parents are hardworking regular folks, just like most of us.  They live in a small Vermont town where people form opinions quickly and express them publicly.

This story takes many twists and turns but the author does a good job of staying in control, pushing it forward. Some readers will get caught in the rich-poor, privileged debate. The book does, however, move past that quite succinctly. In the end it is all about the scariest thing one can imagine, a mother’s undeterred love for her child and family.  Well done, Dervla McTiernan!

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Excerpts from the novel:

LOCAL – Andy had a stronger accent than I had.  He still flattened some of his vowels and swallowed his t’s in the Vermont way.  “Until” became “Un-ill” in his mouth.  I used to have the same accent, but a little more than a year in college in Boston had been enough time for me to shed my heritage like it was a bad smell, and I’d never been able to get it back.  I liked Andy’s accent.  It was a sign of his character, that he didn’t feel the need to change for anyone.

STORY MANAGEMENT – “The press conference video had been shared twenty-eight thousand times so far across all major platforms.  I’m told by people who know about these things that that’s likely to increase exponentially over the next few days.”

GOD – I don’t mind religion.  I’ve known some good people who put God at the center of their lives, and that’s fine.  But when people shout about their prayers it makes me wary.  Probably because the people I’ve known who talk most about God have always been the people with the least humanity.

A BLEAK FUTURE –  He and Naomi were trying for a baby.  Had been for a long time, and now she wanted to talk adoption.  Maybe they should forget about it entirely.  You put everything into your kid.  Your love for each other, your hopes and dreams for the future.  And then some predator comes along and destroys not only your precious child, but everything that made you you.

– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them.  When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org

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