Jocelyn and Simon are neighbors in a wealthy Southern California enclave but neither really feels that they belong and more importantly, both have experienced significant trauma. Simon, the more sympathetic of the two, is a refugee from Rwanda and lost his family in the genocide. Jocelyn was physically and emotionally abused by her mother. Two precipitating events bring these two together- her mother dies and he received a letter from someone purporting to be his daughter. Jocelyn is spinning out of control- she's engaging in a lot of extramarital sex, is obsessing about her tennis instructor, and is doing her best to alienate her husband Conrad. No spoilers but know that this raises questions and is at times uncomfortable to read. There's a lot going on - it's almost a potboiler. The writing reflects Page's MFA. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

OMG, Small Silent Things by Robin Page was not what I expected, it was better. Jocelyn Morrow is not taking the death of her mother very well. You would think that they had a great mother/ daughter relationship, but that’s not the case. Jocelyn’s mother physically and emotionally abused her, and her death triggered Jocelyn’s breakdown.

Jocelyn is happily married with a six your daughter but starts to detach from her family and starts an affair with her Tennis instructor. In the meantime, we meet Simon. Simon is Jocelyn’s neighbor who lost his wife and daughter to Rwandan genocide many years ago. Tormented by the loss of his family Simon receives a letter from someone claiming to be his daughter, and now he must decide if he should respond.

We have two tortured souls and one big HOT MESS. The book gives us too many and enough all at the same time. I feel the sex was over kill, but at the end I understood what and why Jocelyn felt the need to go that route. This book was all over the place, but I liked it. Then ending had me throwing my Kindle in the trash.
Sex, depression, Identity flood these pages. Over I give this book 3.5 out 5. If the story was better structured this could have been an easy 5 out of 5

Thank you Harper Perennial & NetGalley for gifting me this copy in exchange for an honest review.

This cover is absolutely beautiful. There was a little too much sex in this for my taste and I found myself skimming at times to get past it. Overall just not for me.