One of the great attractions of reading fiction is getting inside a character's head--it's a level of access we rarely have with anyone else. In the psychologically astute, emotionally resonant Inside, Alix Ohlin allows the reader to know her characters more fully than any of them will ever know each other.
The linchpin of Inside is Montreal therapist Grace Tomlinson. Recently divorced, preoccupied with a teenage client, Grace is skiing alone when she almost literally stumbles across a man in the midst of a suicide attempt. He survives, and she is drawn to him, leading to a relationship that blurs the lines between personal and professional. Her ex-husband, Mitch, also a therapist, is attempting to move on; despite living in the same city, he and Grace won't cross paths again for several years. Meanwhile, charismatic teenage Annie slips away from Montreal and winds up in New York City, trying to pursue an acting career. She stumbles across someone, too--an uncomfortably familiar teenage girl--and finds herself recalling her old therapist.
While they are physically apart for stretches of the novel, Ohlin's characters remain inside one another's heads, and their stories have parallels and connections that they may never know about--although the reader, having an inside vantage point, will want to find them. Inside is a quiet novel, populated with beautifully drawn, complex characters that get inside the heart as well as the head. --Florinda Pendley Vasquez, blogger at The 3 R's Blog: Reading, 'Riting, and Randomness