First Fiction Friday: The Inquirer

At its core, Jaclyn Dawn’s The Inquirer is about a young woman returning to a hometown that holds personal demons, and unlike Wynonna in Wynonna Earp, there is no magical, cursed six-shooter to easily put down those demons. This is not a story that delves into the fantastical. But like Wynonna, Amiah uses her humour and out-of-the-box thinking to allow her to cope with her parents, her father’s injury, her manipulative ex, her ex-best friend, and the fact that no one understands why she left.So all eyes are on Amiah when she returns to help with the family farm after her father breaks his leg, and the new local tabloid, the Inquirer, focusing on the town of Kingsley’s gossip is ready to report on her every move. Her choices seem laid out in bold and underlined, with exclamation points in triplicate, which is a lot of pressure for someone who has left town for a good reason.As in What is Eating Gilbert Grape, the small town friends and family of Amiah are well-rounded and complex. Kingsley is a proper small town, where everyone thinks they know each other—good and bad—and where there is comfort in understanding the predictable quirks of your neighbour and even the quirks of the town’s traditions. This is why the Inquirer fascinates and upsets so many of the citizens of Kingsley: they thought they knew the ins and outs of each others’ lives, but it turns out secrets are as widespread as pickup trucks. The tone remains engaging throughout, and Jaclyn Dawn somehow manages to write with humour about heavy subject matter without cheapening the depth of Amiah’s journey.We get to see how much Amiah is a part of Kingsley through the eyes of her roommate and business partner, Nathan, an outsider who comes to Kingsley and sees it as a humourous, quaint, and novel place. However, the book does not look at the town the way Nathan does; his is just one viewpoint. We see Amiah’s perspective as the person who left and who is seeing what has changed, and what hasn’t, in a place she had to leave to protect herself. There are also the viewpoints of those who have chosen to stay in Kingsley, including Amiah’s parents, her once best friend, and her ex, Mike. Kingsley is their home and they will protect it from outsiders and from the divisive effect of gossip.What the town knows about Amiah is that she is the daughter of a farmer and his wife. She married the town stud, and then she left. She is now back, but not for long. Throughout reading the book, you learn the complicated reason Amiah chose to leave. Beyond that though, you get to know why Amiah kept her reasons secret—reasons that are complex and saddening and depressingly sensible. You get to know how she copes with the weight of panic that takes ahold of her when dealing with her past in front of people she fears will not understand. Finally, you get to find out who is behind the gossip mag, and who has made a meal out of the secrets of Kingsley, population 1431. X+Y:The humour and pluck of Wynonna Earp, but with an entirely different set of demons (and an entirely different method of coping with them), meets the small-town feel of What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, with a gossipy twist.

 # # #Jaclyn Dawn grew up in a tabloid-free small town in Alberta. With a communications degree and creative writing Masters, she works as a freelance writer and instructor. She now lives somewhere between city and country outside Edmonton with her husband and son. The Inquirer is her debut novel.