Review: The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern

The Strange Inheritance of Leah Fern, by Rita Zoey Chin (Melville House 2022)

It’s hard for me to turn away a book with an elephant on the cover, even a statue of an elephant like the one featured here. Which, I’ll admit, is the initial reason I clicked on this book on Netgalley. But the description sounded right up my alley too: roadtrip novel, mysterious treasure hunt of letters, a circus setting for at least part of it — sign me right up!

On the eve of her planned suicide, Leah Fern receives a package from the lawyer of her recently deceased neighbor with a letter that implores her to spread the neighbor’s ashes at various points around North America, offering Leah answers to a mystery she’s held most of her life — what happened to Leah’s mother. When Leah was young, her mother dropped her off with an old friend, Edward Murphy, and never returned. Now, fifteen years later and desperately alone, Leah finds the possibility hard to resist, setting her off on a solitary adventure in a dusty old pickup with only the company of a bejeweled urn filled with the ashes of a woman she barely knew.

I think the premise of this story is impeccable. I am all in on this premise. But there were some parts of the execution that fell apart for me. Firstly, I didn’t and still don’t understand the initial suicide plan of Leah’s, both why it was included and the ritualistic method she planned to use. I felt like we didn’t know her well enough to understand her desperation at that point, and it never really explained itself. I also had a hard time following the timeline, as we jump between not only Leah’s present and past, but also the present and past of Essie East (the deceased neighbor) as she slowly reveals her story through letters scattered around North America. I loved the character of Edward Murphy, Leah’s foster parent of sorts, with his gentle kindness and far-reaching compassion, but I wished we got more of him, his motivations, his backstory, why Leah’s mother chose him to raise her child.

However, I did love the characters Leah met along her journey. At each and every point, she meets at least one fantastic character, that both reveals more of Leah’s character to the reader and just spices up the narrative in delightful ways. There were a couple stand-outs to me (namely the first and last), but not an uninteresting one in the bunch.

There’s a lot to unpack in this story, and I’m not sure it got unpacked all the way, but still held my interest and I’ll be interested to see what else Chin writes in the future!

Thanks to Netgalley and Melville House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!