Book Review: The Thunder Beneath Us by Nicole Blades

Feb 23, 2017 · 3 min read

I’m still looking up at the constellation when I hear the thunder. Only it’s not clapping through the blue night skies. It’s under our feet. — The Thunder Beneath Us by Nicole Blades.

The Thunder Beneath Us is a compelling story of drama and emotions. I had a serious time liking the novel’s protagonist and narrator, Best Lightburn. Best was negative and selfish. And I struggled with reading her story. And yet, afterwards, Best is stuck in my head. And now, I feel a deep sympathy towards her and her journey.

At the centre of the story is Bathsheba “Best” Lightburn, a magazine writer. Best has sought for over a decade to craft a perfect fabulous life for herself by hiding and ignoring her childhood trauma. Her brothers Bryant and Benjamin died in a tragic accident ten years prior to the main activities that the book explores. From the very beginning, I shared the opening paragraph from the book’s prologue at the start of this review, there is strong crisp voice of the storytelling that I enjoyed.

The book explores themes of identity, adult friendships and family and self-esteem and love. At the core of the book is relationships and how we navigate these relationships especially when we have deep internal struggles. Best Lightburn is in need of love, and she is seeking it and at the same time repelling it by her own self-loathing and struggle to heal and forgive herself.

The love is among friends, Best and her best friends Tyson, Kendra and Lindee (Kendra and Lindee are twin sisters). There is also strained relationship between Best and her on again/off again movie star secret boyfriend Grant.

And one of the most interesting relationship studies and love explored in the novel is between Best and her parents.

Best has recast herself as an only child. She is burdened by loss, shame and survivor’s guilt. The death of her brothers is something that she holds onto, and cannot let go off.

A quick little side note that made this book fantastic for me personally was that the sprinkling of Caribbean flavours throughout the book. Best’s father is Trinidadian and her mother is from Barbados. The Caribbean vibe is picked up through small references to family visits to the region, food and the way Best parents speak to her and each other.

Nicole Blades does an amazing job of crafting flawed characters that will rub the reader the wrong way. And yet in her masterful storytelling and vivid descriptions Blades engages the reader so much that you feel compelled to see this take through to the end. And trust me if you stick with Best and all her ups and downs and the dramatic twists of her life you will not be disappointed. The Thunder Beneath Us is simply a brilliant piece of women’s fiction.