Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht

Relief Map by Rosalie Knecht is a slightly “edgy” book that will have wide appeal.  The setting is contemporary rural Pennsylvania and the story begins with the power and telephones getting knocked out.  It seems there is a terrorist hiding in the area and all access roads are blocked and monitored by law enforcement so that no-one can leave or enter. Residents are given incomplete information and become increasingly agitated. 

I read Relief Map in one day – totally sharing in the anger, frustration, boredom, and confusion faced by the characters. Livy, Nelson, Dominic and Brian are the four teens primarily featured in the story, although Rosalie Knecht also relays how some of their parents and local shop keepers deal with the oppressive circumstances and increasing tension with the police.  "'This won’t be over until they get him,' Ron said…. 'If they leave without him, they lose, and they're not going to be the ones to lose. I guarantee you that.'" Knecht uses simple, everyday situations to convey the characters’ feelings: “Livy could not concentrate on the magazines, and as the night grew later and she felt no urge to sleep, her anxiety began to rise again.” I marked numerous passages and thought that Livy’s internal conversations were deftly rendered: “you could make the wrong decisions in such small pieces that by the time you realized what you were doing, it was too late.”

Relief Map has been described as a “languid thriller” and a coming of age story, especially for Livy. Literature circles and book groups will find much to discuss. I am purposefully not saying more about the several intertwined plot threads (and the difficult choices about what constitutes good and bad) because I do not want to detract from the suspense and secrets, some well-hidden and some newly discovered.