Just Finished: "Bury Me Deep" Megan Abbott

Juat Finished: Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott, 2009, 9781416599098.

Good book. I have not yet read the afterword about Winnie Ruth Judd. Knowing that the novel took the Judd story as a starting point was what delayed my starting this book. Too much bad taste in my mouth from Phoenix and the fact that the gal who wrote the book on Judd, Bommersbach, got on my nerves.

Told from the perspective of Marion Seeley. Seeley is young - about 25 or 23 - and married to an older doctor, Everett, who is in his thirties. Marion has been married to Dr. Seeley, as she calls him, for several years. But, Everett is a heroin addict and they have spent the marriage bouncing around the country as Everett has gone state-to-state chasing a valid medical license and landing in rehab.

The Seeleys land in Phoenix with Everett depositing Marion in a boarding house while he heads to a job with a mining company in Mexico. Marion makes friends with a nurse at the TB clinic she works at. The new pal, Louise, and Louise's roommate/pal, Ginny, make fast friends with Marion. Louise and Ginny invite Marion to all their wild parties, give "good girl" Marion her first drink, and introduce her to Joe. Joe introduces Marion to lust and sexual ecstasy.

Marion can't get enough of Joe. Marion worries over her sin and betrayal to Everett - even though Everett is a junkie bum - but cannot tear herself away from Joe and is happy in her sin. Joe is a married philanderer though and soon starts to cast Marion aside. One night Marion and Louise and Ginny start to fight. Ginny is killed. Louise is killed. Joe has Marion take the bodies to L.A. to hide.

Anyway. I missed a few pertinent details but you get the point. Marion is backstabbed by Joe. Marion has massive guilt. Marion still wants her legs wrapped around Joe. Everett shows back up. Things happen. Hearts are torn. Blah, blah, blah.

I liked this more than Queenpin. The writing style felt different. I'm not sure why, both are told first person. (Was that first person? I get confused.) Maybe I'll have an opportunity to ask Abbott about it at Muskego.

Comments:
1- Lots of neat period touches by Abbott. Soaking hair in castor oil, meals, TB patients and symptoms, geography of Phoenix and L.A.
2- Abbott likes commas.
3- I don't like to having to keep checking the book cover to spell Abbott's name correctly.
4- Abbott did not spring many surprises for me until the end. It took me a while to catch the lesbian angle though. Several things said by Louise are remembered later and revealed to mean something different (kind of like James Ellroy does).

EDIT: 5 - Both Queenpin and Bury feature a female protagonist enthralled with a rough and cruel dude.