Caitlin Mullen’s Please See Us paints a grim image of the struggles of Atlantic City, especially after Hurricane Sandy. In her new novel, she focuses particularly on the struggle of women trying to make a living within it.
Clara is a 16-year-old, high-school-drop out. She lives with her aunt Des, who took her in after her mother left for California, abandoning her. Neither of them has any special skills except for pickpocketing and scamming customers. They run a small store on the boardwalk where Des exploits Clara’s clairvoyant abilities. When that doesn’t make them enough to pay the bills, Des pressures Clara to become an escort.
It’s a familiar tale in Atlantic City, where drug trafficking abounds and businesses are closing down. No longer in its heyday, it has become a place where women fall prey to easy means of living. When life gets tough, they find no other option than to start selling themselves.
One day, the bodies of these women who’ve endured abuse and denigration start popping up near the marsh behind a motel. From the beyond, the spirits of these girls begin reaching out to Clara, who starts having visions. She wants to help, but the visions don’t make sense. Clara is at a loss on what to do. With the help of Lily, a disillusioned New York art girl who’s moved back to Jersey after a humiliating breakup, Clara will make her best attempt at figuring out these visions. But the misery of the city is like a dark, sinister hand that creeps through the night and takes anyone it wishes for its own — even two girls as harmless as Lily and Clara. It can only be a matter of time before these two are consumed by the bleakness that runs through the streets of Atlantic City.
Please See Us is a psychological thriller that will leave you guessing at every turn. The underlining of the story, though, is laced with the reflection of gender inequality. It emphasizes the struggles women go through, the ways it sometimes feels like the world is purposely set up for the female gender to fail, the corruption of authority forces that push these repugnant conditions forward. These girls go to their last resort just to survive; they endure unnecessary abuse and condescension; they learn to settle for the scraps of life, just to end up with less than when they first started. It all begins to feel as if there are never any silver linings for them in the sky.
Though the story gets off to a slow start, taking a long time to show us the connection between all the characters, it was still intriguing enough to keep me hooked until the end. I was still interested in finding out who would be the next victim, whether Lily and Clara would make it safely to the end, how many more victims would the killer claim, and who was committing these murders and why.
Mullen also cleverly shows us through several chapters, the POV of the victims. This way we are able to relate to them, to understand that there was never anything that made them lesser people. She shows us that no circumstance ever begets the punishment that these women received simply for trying to stay alive.
Please See Us is a good book to pass the afternoon; an easy, albeit dark, read to take with you on a trip, to sit with at the beach or to read at your favorite coffee shop. It’s entertaining while also carrying within it a thought-provoking message.