A gripping tale of personal sovereignty, soul-searching, and the need to speak our hardest truths, Because of His Heart by Stephen A Marvin is a slow-building masterclass in fractured romance.
When Dr. Erica Seames is surprised by her husband Charles during a shift at the hospital, he witnesses a moment of indiscretion that sends him spiraling into a fit of jealousy and mistrust. His violent reaction and the subsequent rift in their marriage lead Erica to flee, seeking comfort in her childhood home and the anonymous confessional of an online blog.
The thinly veiled truths she reveals through her writing are discovered by her estranged husband, who chooses yet another path of betrayal during their weeks-long silence and separation. They are each indelibly changed as their conjoined lives diverge and coalesce, and they begrudgingly embark on their own bitter roads to resolution. As more peripheral players enter the drama, the stakes boil ever higher, and Erica’s desire for a trustworthy confidante invites a dark force into her world, one that will cross any line to keep his secrets safe.
It is no small feat to write so eloquently and honestly about the complicated nuance of marriage, the nebulous nature of abuse, and the psychological toll of imperfect love. Yet from the first page, this book never shies away from contradictions or challenging subjects, while frequently putting words to seemingly indescribable emotions that many readers will recognize, perhaps even as unspoken revelations about themselves.
Thematically, this book explores the loaded subjects of infidelity, jealousy, obsession, professional ethics, taboo fantasies, and the insidious fringes of emotion that can corrupt an otherwise happy marriage. Erica’s online outpourings are methodical examinations of love as it fractures and fails, acting as powerful meditations on the nature of commitment and the boundaries of obligation to a spouse. Overcoming a breach of trust is one of the most complicated demands of a committed partnership, and this book delves deeply into the self-inflicted torture that such closure often requires.
The prose is a linguistic playground where Marvin dexterously toys with syntax and vocabulary. Melodic and entrancing, the narrative passages include streams of internal monologue from the characters, and while this tool can often be overused by authors as a crutch, here it functions as a revelatory break from omniscient storytelling. That said, the dialogue is slightly more inconsistent, with articulate exchanges occasionally interrupted by anachronistic phrases or stilted conversation that reads like exposition.
The elevated language and writing style suggest an older time period, yet this novel is set in the era of printers and tablets, and this ongoing disconnect could be jarring for readers unused to such refined speech patterns. Similarly, the blog excerpts have an equally erudite voice to the narration, making the reading experience somewhat seamless, but more distinction might highlight the emotional peaks and valleys of the story. There are also some basic grammatical and capitalization errors, some of which may be stylistic choices, but this is not always clear.
Overall, the story and prose are remarkably original, and the subject matter boldly transcends traditional fare in the genres of both psychological thrillers and marital drama, resulting in an intellectually rich and even instructive work of contemporary fiction.
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