Review: One Step Too Far

By Tina Seskis

An apparently happy marriage. A beautiful son. A lovely home.
So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life?
How will she survive?
And what is the date that looms, threatening to force her to confront her past?
No-one has ever guessed her secret. Will you?

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A terrible event causes an otherwise happily married mother to abandon her family and the reader is left to second guess the nature of the event almost to the end of the novel, which of course is the point: 'No-one has ever guessed her secret. Will you?'. It’s an intriguing premise but one I felt that was ultimately under-developed, and whilst I found the book to be very readable I was left dissatisfied at its conclusion.

I enjoyed the exploration of not only the main character’s (Emily/Cat’s) history, but also that of her wayward twin Caroline, and their parents. This meant that the reader is able not only able to see Emily’s family from her point-of-view, which is coloured by her own experiences and prejudices, but also see more objectively the influences for why characters react in particular ways. I’m thinking especially of Caroline is this respect, and if I’m honest it’s the treatment of Caroline’s character that left me so dissatisfied.

Almost immediately Caroline is portrayed as the ‘bad’ twin, and for the first part of the book I felt that there was a sinister potential to this elusive event that I was left guessing at that Caroline had to be at the heart of. As more of the circumstances of Emily’s and Caroline’s upbringing were revealed I began to feel real sympathy and wretchedness on Caroline’s behalf. She isn’t sinister, she’s tragic.

It was with genuine frustration that I read about Emily remembering a terrible repressed childhood memory regarding her fear of heights that her twin was responsible for, only to never have the incident explained. I was expected to take on faith that Caroline was responsible and so of course she was bad and hated. The lack of development at this point left me wondering if I had missed something. If you've read One Step Too Far and you think I have then let's chat.

I struggled to believe that Emily’s journey as the broken past-fleeing Cat wouldn’t have given her if not more sympathy for, than at least a better understanding of, her damaged twin, and I felt that Caroline’s ‘redemption’ at the end of the book was heartless. The over-all message of this book for me seemed to be that everyone is flawed, everyone makes mistakes, but no one is inherently evil, and so all are deserving of a second chance. Except for Caroline. 

Despite the above there was never a point where I considered discontinuing reading, and despite my indignation on Caroline's behalf I would read another of Seskis' books. This was her first book and it's a solid one.