All the Lasting Things

David Hopson’s All the Lasting Things is a refreshing look at family secrets and the people who keep them. Well written, with an interesting combination of vices and virtues flowing from each character, the reader will find himself searching for more from all of them while also damning them for their bad behavior.

All the Lasting Things could be made better with more in depth characters, but what’s presented makes them believable, if not quite sympathetic. The story’s arc shows us just how deep secrets can go, and makes us wonder who we’re keeping them for- and from. As a debut novel, Hopson manages to delve deeply into relationships and how the Fishers participate in them, though they’d be more convincing if there had been one protagonist who was likeable. All told, however, it presents in stark reality the fact that some people just aren’t, and they still have a story to be told.