I wasn’t sure I was ready for a book about the ‘Big One’ — you know, the long-feared earthquake said to be looming along the West Coast, but Peck had a way of getting me to turn the pages.
Intrigued by the characters, I almost couldn’t wait for the Vancouver ground I live on to shake, only in a fictionalized story. Broken relationships in a now-broken city and complex characters in now-convoluted situations were magnified by the way Frances Peck built her story and her book.

Sometimes it takes a physical or emotional shake to help us reconsider the lack of balance in our lives. Still, by the end of the book I was relieved to be on unbroken ground.