The writing in this book was quite beautiful and at times you could feel completely immersed into the heartbreak of losing a parent.

While the writing was something that brought this story to life, it also felt that the plot line got a bit repetitive. This sometimes made for a slow building story, as you felt like you were just revisiting the same things over and over.

As we have mentioned many times, we absolutely love books that are written with dual or multiple POVs to provide a deeper look into other character's perspectives. So it will come as no shock that one of the things that we enjoyed about this book, is that it is told from 4 POVs. We get to follow both Lil and Frank on their journeys, as well as, a single mother Shelley and her son, Harvey who happen to live in the house that Frank grew up in.

All in all, this was a well written story that provides a look into family, relationships, heartbreak, and the legacy people would like to leave behind for their family and loved ones.

(Review on blog. Link in bio)

This book is an absolute master class in detailed writing! It is detailed in the very best way - in the way that hooks you in emotionally, not in a way that provides extraneous detail that does nothing for the reader. I was hooked almost immediately because of the descriptions of the character's thoughts and memories. This window into their inner lives is riveting, and I am hard pressed to give another example of an author who does this so well.
This was not my first time reading Jill McCorkle. I read Life After Life in 2013 and enjoyed it very much. But I do not remember being so struck by her astounding writing ability. In this book, every single page packs an emotional punch. The characters are all dealing with grief in one way or another, and their losses echo throughout the book. I read the book more slowly than I normally read because I didn't want to miss any of the precious details, and it was sometimes a lot to take in.
If someone were to ask me what the book is about, I would be tempted to say "people", which is what I sometimes do when the focus of the novel is not about plot at all. The older couple and the younger woman and her son are vivid and complete characters, and they help us to see how resilient human beings are and how they do their best to cope with loss and uncertainty.
But it doesn't really matter what this book is about, because reading it feels like you are getting an authentic and rare glimpse into people's minds and hearts and that you are living their lives with them for a short time.

I tried, a few times, but couldn't get past the 20% mark of the book. The story is told in pieces of paper she has saved, but they are not in any order. The lack of conversation drove me crazy so I guess I'm not cut out for this way of story telling.

There are several main characters and all seem to have troubled pasts, mainly due to loss. One lost his father suddenly at a young age. The writer of the pieces of paper has never gotten over losing her mother suddenly at the Coconut Grove fire. Since her mother was a dancer, she has an interest in dancing that left me not interested.

It probably gets better and maybe some issues get resolved while looking back over the past, but I was not into any of the characters or the style of writing.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

RATING: 4 STARS
2020; Algonquin Books

Hieroglyphics is a difficult book to describe. It is beautifully written with such realism and emotion. I will say that I would describe this novel as a character study rather than plot driven. It all begins with a house that ties the characters, and families together. While it is a contemporary story, the characters, depending on the ages, do go back in time with memories. It reminded me a bit of Olive Kitteridge but the characters's stories repeat in this novel. Based on this book I have put Life After Life on hold. I would compare her writing style to Sue Miller, Elizabeth Berg, Anne Tyler or Jennifer Haigh. It's a novel with more than a story. You get to know the characters and feel their emotions. I highly recommend this novel for those that want to get lost for awhile.

***I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.***

Thanks to Algonquin for a copy for review purposes.

This book was a reflection of life from a married couple.

I liked it.

When Lil and Frank returned to their North Carolina hometown in their early 80’s, Lil is determined to write a family history for their kids while Frank seems obsessed with the home he grew up in. Shelley, a busy single mom, and her young son live there now the repeatedly refuses to let Frank in. Her son is convinced there’s a ghost in the house. Its basically a character-driven novel in which the characters themselves reveal the mystery that is discovered at the end. It’s also the story of early loss and how it reverberates through adulthood.

Hieroglyphics follows Shelley, her son Harvey, and husband and wife duo Frank and Lil. Each chapter is told from one of their perspectives. Shelley and Harvey have perspectives from the present while Frank's perspectives switch from flashbacks to current time, and Lil's perspective is told from letters she has written to her family. Frank and Lil have recently moved from Boston to the town that Frank grew up in North Carolina where Shelley and her son currently live.

I liked that as a reader, I didn't find out why Lil's perspective was only told by writings and I thought that the reveal was well done. I love that Jill researched the two historical events that take one parent from Frank and Lil. I would have liked to see more building on what exactly bonded the two together.

However, overall Hieroglyphics was much more character driven than plot driven and as a reader that prefers a mix of both, I think I would've enjoyed this story a bit more if there had been more plot building around all of the characters. I wanted just a little more background of what happened to Shelley before she moved to North Carolina as well as what exactly did Frank do with his colleague that had Lil uncomfortable? McCorkle also revealed some plot points within the last thirty pages, and while I enjoy that in thrillers, I think it fell short in this piece of fiction. If the reveals had been revealed just a little bit earlier, I think that this book could have been more successful for me as it felt like a disjointed conclusion to me.

As perspectives moved around between flashbacks, current time, and letters, I often found myself confused by what exactly happened.

If you like character driven stories told from multiple perspectives, I highly suggest you pick up Hieroglyphics because I think it will be for you.

Reflections on memory, the layers of self that make up who we are, and the sense of mortality at the heart of what it means to be human. This was a heavy and contemplative read.

Writing: ★★★★★
Characters: ★★★★
Pacing: ★★★ (a little slow for me)

Hieroglyphics has a title that makes you think of history. And not just any history, but ancient history. This was clearly intentional, and also relied on the other aspect of a hieroglyphic: the fact that they're pictures displaying stories, the written word, and that their interpretation varies.

My standard review format seems off in this case. It's not a standard novel.

Imagine if you could walk through the mind of your grandmother, your grandfather. What would you see? A haze of distant memories, maybe. Or a winding path cluttered on either side with the small details of millions of moments. Or, just maybe, the space is crystal clear: everything in its place, everything lovingly polished with the element of remembering.

This novel follows the story of an elderly couple, Lil and Frank, and their continuous musings on what it means to remember, what is important about what they're remembering, and how they want to be remembered. If that sounds like a twisting, continuous loop—you'd be right. By the end of this novel I felt like I WAS Lil and Frank. I'd lived their memories and breathed their thoughts and felt the core of their beings from page to page. McCorkle's writing is phenomenal in this, even when she's scraping apart her characters skin layer by skin layer to expose them to the elements of time.

Another element of this novel was Shelley, a woman younger than Lil and Frank, but no less focused on her own memories, pasts, and looping concepts of life. She's the current owner of Frank's childhood home, and when Frank stops by to ask her to let him wander about—to remember, obviously—she doesn't let him in because of her own reasons. This relationship develops through long vignettes of Shelley's experience, her son Harvey's experience and his feelings about ghosts, and through Frank and Lil themselves.

An interesting, thought provoking read that's meant to make us hyper aware of not only our mortality, but also of that old phrase: When an old person dies, a library burns to the ground.

Thank you to Algonquin Books for my copy in exchange for an honest review.

This story is told from different characters' points of view: Lil, Frank, Shelley, and Harvey. It was really interesting to see the struggles that all of these characters had and how their lives ended up weaving together.

Although Lil also lost her mother tragically, she seemed to cope with the trauma of that better than Frank and Shelley are dealing with their own. What I loved about Jill McCorkle's writing is how she was able to capture that stress and anxiety about things we can't control and combine it with an overall happy life.

The characters were really what made this story. They were complex, interesting, and all so different from one another. But the ending is where the plot and all the snippets in time really come together. I was so happy about how it ended, even though it had a bit of a cliff hanger, everything finally made sense to me.

Hieroglyphics was a relaxing read that focused on the life we live, the past we leave, and the love we share for others.

This book was an #ARC from #NetGalley provided to me by the author and publisher - free of charge for an honest review. Special thanks to Algonquin Books and Jill McCorkle.

"Hieroglyphics" is a poignant novel showcasing the power of grief, loss, secrets, and the enduring need to ensure you're not forgotten when you're gone. The story centers around Lil and Frank - a long-married couple who connected over their individual heart-crushing losses as children. We follow them as they relocate south to live out their final years. Their stories intersect with struggling single-mom Shelley and her eccentric son Harvey as Frank returns to the small North Carolina town where, decades ago, his father was lost in a freak accident and his mother found new love - cementing them in a new home that Frank never wanted. This gorgeously written novel takes us on a journey recognizing how losses and grief, leaving a legacy, and wanting things we may never have shape us as people.

Ms. McCorkle has woven a beautiful narrative showcasing the cries of "I'll be back" or "I was there". The aching desire for things to be different. The way Lil's portion is written is reminiscent of scattered memories - trying to piece together bits and pieces in hopes that it will mean something to someone when you are gone. Overall, this was a wonderful book and has kept me thinking about it long after it was finished.

Hieroglyphics is a time-spanning beautiful novel that will have you asking "what could have been if things were different?".

#hieroglyphics #jillmccorkle #algonquinbooks #arc #netgalley #bookrecommendations #bookreviewer #booksbooksbooks #goodreads #bookreviews #books #booklover #bookaddict #bookobsessed #reviews #bookshelf

This book is narrated from four perspectives: Lil, Frank, Shelley, and Harvey. Lil is trying to make sense of her life and is determined to leave a history for her children, so she sifts through letters, notes and diary entries to write the family story for Becca and Jeff. She reveals some family secrets, mostly involving her husband Frank. Frank wants to revisit his boyhood home and check out the root cellar to see if what he left there remains. Shelley is the single mother who lives in Frank’s boyhood home; she is stressed because of her work as a court stenographer and because of her son Harvey whose over-active imagination causes difficulties with his peers.

This is not a light read. Death permeates the novel. Frank is obsessed with “the myths of death and all the ancient beliefs of the afterlife.” He is also pre-occupied with hastening (“hastening the inevitable while it’s all still in our control”) and proposes that he and Lil die together since they’re experiencing only “some pale imitation of living.” Lil, therefore, worries about Frank’s plans whenever he leaves the house. Shelley seems to be running from ghosts in her past while listening to the details of a homicide case, and her young son is fixated on ghosts and serial killers.

Tragic deaths also overshadow the lives of characters. Lil lost her mother in a fire, and Frank lost his father in a train accident. When they first met, it is these childhood tragedies that brought them together. Both still struggle with trying to remember and understand these parents they lost. Both repeatedly think about their last day: Lil wonders who was with her mother at the night club the night of the fire and Frank wonders whether his father’s last moments were really like his mother remembered.

A major theme is the inability to fully understand our parents. Lil writes to her children, “As parents, we pack your bags and strap them to your little backs before you are even old enough to carry them, and then you have to spend the rest of your life unpacking and figuring it all out.” And sometimes parents keep secrets from their children or lie to protect them; this is certainly Shelley’s parenting technique. Another theme is the connections between past and present: “We all are haunted by something – something we did or didn’t do – and the passing years either add to the weight or diminish it.”

The narrative feels scattered because it moves among characters and back and forth in time. Events are mentioned but then not detailed until later. This rambling structure is appropriate because it imitates how memories work. Unfortunately, I found this structure frustrating. Lil and Frank’s stories were interesting but Shelley’s much less so. Harvey’s perspective was often just confusing. The characters are connected through Frank’s childhood home, but there seemed to be a lack of cohesion among the four stories. In the end, however, I just didn’t care to spend time analyzing what I’d read.

Perhaps I read the book at the wrong time because it didn’t have the impact on me I initially expected. I kept thinking I should be enjoying the novel more than I was; more than once, I found myself wishing it would move on from being a slow burn. There is substance but little impression of a unified whole. The title is very appropriate because reading the book sometimes felt like trying to make sense of enigmatic symbols.

Note: I received a digital galley from the publisher via NetGalley.

Thank you so much to Jill and Algonquin for including me on the blog tour for Hieroglyphics! While this isn’t quite in my typical scope, I found it raw and emotional, captivating and tragic, while remaining hopeful and resilient.

The synopsis per the publisher is as follows: HIEROGLYPHICS is a moving journey through years of love and loss, truths and half-truths, and an original exploration of what we can and cannot know about the past. Lil and Frank, who each lost a parent when still a child, wed young and have aged along with their enduring marriage. Moving “home” to North Carolina after years in Boston, the retired couple faces a return to before: Lil begins sifting through letters and diaries to edit her history before passing it on to her children; Frank becomes obsessed with his childhood house, now occupied by a young single mother. At the heart of the matter is that each still yearns to understand more about the parents they lost too young. As McCorkle investigates how memory and truth are often cobbled out of bits and pieces left behind—receipts, letters, graffiti, words spoken, especially those last ones left to interpretation—she contemplates all that we can never know about the people in our lives.

What I loved most about this book is the nostalgia of it all. And how nostalgia is ultimately bittersweet and seen through rose-colored lenses. It is very much a look at how our past defines us and what we do with it.

This book is told from multiple perspectives – our main characters, Frank and Lil, as well as Shelley and her son Harvey. Frank grew up in the house that Shelley and Harvey currently live in which causes the stories intersect, however they remain for the most part two separate stories living under one roof. I was most drawn to Lil and Shelley’s chapters. I am a sucker for epistolary novels, and while this probably isn’t considered to be one, Lil’s chapters are told mostly from a journalistic perspective. I also found Lil and Shelley’s stories to be the most emotional. As a nostalgic person, there’s nothing I enjoy more than items reminiscent of the past. And much like Lil, I can remember the weirdest details of things that happened 20 years ago but can’t remember to grab my wallet when I leave for the store (bless you, Apple Pay). Lil is obsessed with keeping the past alive while Shelley wants nothing but to forget and move away from hers. Oddly enough, I found both of these stories very relatable.

If you’re looking for a high-paced story with a clear beginning, middle, end, then Hieroglyphics is not the pick for you. But if you’re looking for a thought-provoking tragic yet hopeful look at how loss molds our lives for better or worse and how we carry our past with us, then I highly recommend grabbing this one as soon as possible.

Hieroglyphics opens as a character study of three generations of people not necessarily connected by family, but related by home. Lil and Frank are an older couple returning to their hometown in the winter of their lives. Shelley is a single mother of two boys Jason and Harvey. She and Harvey live alone in Frank's childhood home.

We get a very good sense of Lil through her collection of letters and odd bits of history that she leaves about the house. Of all the characters her voice was the one resonated with me the most. I felt nostalgic at times even though she is not of my generation nor is her story my story. I was just pulled in by the love that she showed her family, her inner strength and her loyalty.

Frank is an archaeologist who investigates "graves and caves" in search of clues of long gone civilizations. But the past that he is really trying to decipher is his own.

Shelley works as a stenographer who is beset by the current case that she is transcribing. It is a high profile murder case where she over identifies with the victim. As she listens to testimony it triggers flashbacks of her past traumas. This intense anxiety is causing her to reflect on different aspects of her life. Not only forcing her to revisit her mistakes of the past, but to also reevaluate her decisions as a parent.

Poor Harvey thinks their home is haunted. There is a ghost that lingers at night and causes him to wet the bed. He has a vivid imagination. When he puts on one of his fake mustaches he could be either a sentient adult or a superhero known as Super Monkey. His superpower is that he can talk serial killers out of doing wrong and turn them onto the path of all that is moral and good. All of these are symptoms of his overriding fears - his sensitivity over his cleft lip, his abandonment by his father and his awareness of his mother's grief and distress.

When I was a student I found that picking a title that encapsulated the heart of my story was perhaps one of the hardest tasks of writing. So now as an adult whenever I read a book I try to figure out why the author chose the title and its significance. After reading Hieroglyphics I came up with two justifications for the name.

Hieroglyphics are an ancient code of pictures that tell a story. Each of the characters encode their experiences. Shelley uses shorthand while transcribing her cases. Harvey and his brother trade secrets in Klingon. Lil reminisces over her mother's unique sort of jargon. She and Frank share secret words so if one dies first they can "send messages" through the living.

Hieroglyphics are a language that informs the past. Here the past can be bittersweet with characters at times examining their lives through experiences of death and catastrophe. As Lil helps her daughter prepare for her wedding she is reminded of her own. Although her own mother was taken before she wed Frank she feels blessed to share this moment with her daughter and remembers how tragedy brought her and Frank together.

Take your time reading this book. It is subtle. It is sublime. If I had to sum Hieroglyphics up in one sentence I would say that it was a heartfelt, bittersweet examination of the legacy we leave behind for those we love. Highly recommend.

Thank you to @algonquinbooks @NetGalley and the author for the free ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This particular reading experience makes this review difficult to write. I felt sad and somewhat hopeless while reading this book. I am usually the kind of reader who is able to feel all the emotions in a book and come out the other side, all the better for having felt those emotions and for caring about the characters. Maybe the reading of this book was just poor timing on my part. We're in the midst of a pandemic and perhaps I just wasn't equipped to deal with all the sadness. I found the format of the book confusing. There were several stories within a story. The book spanned generations, but also different families who were not all connected in any way. To my dismay, every character in the book had experienced something quite tragic and spent their lives trying to get through life and simply function. To simply function and "get through" life deeply saddened me. #hieroglyphics #jillmccorkle #algonquinbooks #netgalley #goodreads #bookstagram #booksandmrdarcy #withhernosestuckinabook❤️📚

What will you hold onto and what will you leave behind? This story explores life and death and the secrets we keep especially from our children. There are flashbacks and alternating perspectives told from three people. It was sad but powerful and emotional for me.

Hieroglyphics, by @jillmcorckle, is a new work of fiction that tells the story of four characters. Lil and Frank, an older married couple who have been bonded together by similar tragedies and Shelley and Harvey, a mother and her young son who live in a house that Frank grew up in.

Lil and Frank have been married for years and are moving their lives from Massachusetts to North Carolina to be closer to their daughter. During the move, Lil and Frank reminisce on their history including the tragic deaths of their parents (Lil’s mother and Frank’s father) that first brought them together.

Frank is also drawn to the home that Shelly and Harvey now live in. While Shelley is a single mother raising her young son in an uncertain world.

The author weaves together the stories of both families by having each chapter reflect a characters viewpoint. I loved Lil’s chapters best, as they are told via letter and diary entries. I also really enjoyed how the story was seamlessly told with snippets from the past and present.

Lil and Frank have recently retired to North Carolina, to a town where Frank lived as a child, after having lived many years in Boston. Even after a year there, Lil still feels unsettled and homesick for her old life and home in Boston. And she is beginning to fear that she is loosing many memories, ones she wants to hang onto, and to be able to hand off to her children. Lil has been saving notes and tidbits of information since her children were young, and now at 85 years of age, she wants to try to put them all together, to create something that will be a treasure for her children, that will be a reminder of her, and her love for them.
At the same time that Lil is trying to organize and document their long life together, Frank is becoming obsessed with his memories as well, memories that involve a small house near where they are living, a house he lived in as a child after his father was killed in a train wreck, when he was around 10 years old. Frank keeps returning to stand outside that house, hoping to be invited inside so that he can see how much things have changed, or remained the same. The current tenants of that house, Shelley, a single Mom, and her young son Harvey, become the other central characters of this story.
All 4 of these major characters are trying to make sense of some major instances in their lives. I had a little difficulty at times keeping straight which character was speaking, as all seemed somewhat lost and alone.
Jill McCorkle is such a talented writer and there are so many wonderful lines in this novel. I loved Life After Life, her last book before this one, and while this one did not grab me in quite the same way as that one, this is still well worth t he read, if only for all those gorgeous lines.

The book was decent, good even. It’s a very character driven, slow burn novel. The plot was interesting enough to kept my interest. However, the multiple POVs didn’t work well with this book, in my opinion. Like mentioned before, this book is good but maybe a bit complicated, leaving you mentally exhausted when you finish... but not in a good way.

Bottom line: an okay book, but confusing more times than not.

This is a deep and powerful story. Frank and Lil have living long and good lives married to each other. They have recently relocated from MA to NC to be near their daughter. This move brings about many emotions to both of them. Frank lived in the area as a child, after his father died and during his mom's second marriage, there are pieces of this time that haunt him. Lil is a storyteller, and she is leaving stories and perhaps wisdom for her children. The memories of their youth, both losing a parent, drives much of this book.
I loved this book. Thank you to Algonquin for an early copy of this book

Thank you Netgalley, Algonquin Books and Jill McCorkle for free e-ARC in return of my honest review.

Hieroglyphics is a complicated narrative from few different perspectives. The reader hears the story of Lil and Frank and from Shelley and Harvey. With flashbacks from the past, they managed to draw a complete picture of all of their lives which strangely intercept in one town in one house. I find the story interesting and engaging. The characters are well developed thorough notes, observations and their own voices. Hieroglyphics has many themes opened and slowly goes from one to another. At times, it feels a bit much but at the end it all comes together.