Deceptive Calm Review

[Caroline Maloret]

Deceptive Calm'

Writ­ten by Pa­tri­cia Skip­per

In my re­view, I feel I do need to give few warn­ings about ‘De­cept­ive Calm' as there is some sexu­al scenes and also a strong ele­ment of vi­ol­ence and swear­ing. However, I will do my ut­most to not re­late spoil­ers for any­one yet to read it.

I ser­i­ously struggled to fin­ish this book, only sheer de­term­in­a­tion got me through to the end. I bought the book on Kindle and the title was the main part
that drew me in be­cause it in­sinu­ates secrets be­ing kept and clandes­tine meet­ings. I couldn’t have been more wrong un­for­tu­nately.

We are thrown straight into an ex­tremely chaot­ic scene in the first chapter. Without the in­tro­duc­tion of char­ac­ters, brief de­scrip­tion of what was hap­pen­ing, as
a read­er, I felt im­me­di­ately lost and without know­ing any of the char­ac­ters I found it ex­tremely dif­fi­cult to de­vel­op any form of re­la­tion­ship with them - a must when read­ing fic­tion.

The three main char­ac­ters are Vanessa, Trisha (Vanessa’s best friend & con­fidante) and Barry - Vanessa’s love in­terest. We learn that Vanessa and Trisha are liv­ing in a Cath­ol­ic Con­vent and that Vanessa is ex­tremely beau­ti­ful. I’m go­ing to get this
par­tic­u­lar is­sue out in the open now as it was a run­ning theme through­out the book and it was a ref­er­ence that the au­thor told us every chance pos­sible. Everyone found Vanessa to be beau­ti­ful and this is a sen­ti­ment shared by men and women alike.

We dis­cov­er that there is a spe­cif­ic Nun who loves to quiz every­body on black his­tory and teaches this to the orphans with the fer­vour of a fan­at­ic. She barks
ques­tions to every­one, not just her wards, and although I be­lieve that the au­thor was at­tempt­ing to por­tray her as an en­dear­ing char­ac­ter, I just found it in­tensely irrit­at­ing to have his­tory ex­pos­i­tion dumps in the middle of the storyline, not adding to it but in fact de­tract­ing from what the main fo­cus should have been.

The char­ac­ters don’t feel roun­ded des­pite the in­tric­ate re­la­tion­ships be­ing depic­ted. I can un­der­stand how segreg­a­tion can af­fect this. How­ever, a slur is used to
de­scribe the Black people - ‘fish-eat­er’. I had no clue why this was a slur or even what it meant apart from the ob­vi­ous. After much search­ing, it is ac­tu­ally a ref­er­ence back to when people re­lied on the land more for their food and the rich could af­ford to keep an­im­als and have more op­tions for farm­ing and pro­du­cing food. Where­as the poor - the blacks - re­lied on the rivers for their food - hence the rich call­ing whom they see still as the poor ‘fish-eat­ers’. Now, I ap­pre­ci­ate that the au­thor was at­tempting to de­pict ex­per­i­ences in the south dur­ing this era but it was a com­pletely obscure ref­er­ence and if it ab­so­lutely had to be used then a form of ex­plan­a­tion would have been ap­pre­ci­ated.

I found that the writ­ing it­self was poor. It was not clear on the timeline of events, the con­stant ref­er­ences to Vanessa’s beauty and the smal­lest amount of filling in the world are a few of the ex­amples I found. The word­ing was con­vo­luted, which left me feel­ing very much as if the au­thor was try­ing to fit as many unique or
not fre­quently used words which jarred against the storyline rather than com­pliment­ing it. The sexu­al scenes were ba­sic and lacked the emo­tion­ally con­nec­tion. In fact, I found them to be very sterile and cer­tainly didn’t en­dure me to Barry.

Con­sequently, my first read through felt like a gi­ant in­form­a­tion dump. But, I have to ad­mit an ex­tremely inter­est­ing one had it been done with less crassness,
less for­cing it to the fore­front and rather woven into the ac­tu­al story. It should have been rich in the his­tory of the era, but even the char­ac­ters felt one dimensional.
Even when an attempt is made to give more tothe characters, the fe­male prot­ag­on­ist and her
friend go on to have suc­cess­ful ca­reers and apart from Vanessa be­com­ing a workahol­ic. She isn’t shy of admirers but she is de­term­ined to not have a relationship with any­one be­other than Barry that it con­tin­ues for years is more ir­rit­at­ing than endear­ing.

In my hon­est opin­ion, the au­thor is able to write de­tailed de­scrip­tions, es­pecially the more vis­cer­al ones and it should have been power­ful through­out the nov-
el in­stead of just a couple of oc­cur­rences that didn’t hit the mark at all. I would not be able to leave a re­view that didn’t point out these re­l­at­ively ba­sic writ­ing points as it af­fected the en­tire nov­el. I could not recom­mend this book un­for­tu­nately due to the writ­ing, the world and char­ac­ter build­ing, it was not so much a ro­mance but rather a book about his­tory and a few char­ac­ters placed with­in.

As I said, I really had to push to fin­ish this nov­el, several times I wanted to give up, but I had to see wheth­er the work was con­tinu­ously like this or wheth­er it improved. There was a change of pace in the middle of the story, but be­cause of the lack of char­ac­ter and world build­ing, this jarred with the rest of the nov­el. It also had some ex­tremely un­be­liev­able scen­ari­os such as when Barry is in­jured, the next para­graph has him pick­ing Vanessa up - with the in­jur­ies de­pic­ted it’s highly unlikely he would have been cap­able of such an ac­tion.

In con­clu­sion, I would not re­com­mend this nov­el, and to be per­fectly hon­est i don’t un­der­stand where the 5 star re­views are com­ing from - the most I feel I can
give it is one star and that’s purely be­cause the au­thor suc­cess­fully pub­lished the book.

[kendrick fludd]

Deceptive Calm" by Patricia Skipper is a novel that may not receive extensive coverage on mainstream platforms, but I can offer some general observations based on its title and author. Patricia Skipper is recognized for her ability to create suspenseful stories, and "Deceptive Calm" is likely no exception. The title suggests a narrative where a seemingly tranquil situation conceals underlying tensions or threats—an appealing premise for readers who enjoy psychological thrillers or gripping dramas. While in-depth reviews may be scarce, those who appreciate a slow-building suspense tale featuring intricate characters and surprising twists might find "Deceptive Calm" to be a worthwhile read. If you're thinking about diving into this book, consider exploring platforms like Goodreads or Amazon for user reviews, which can provide valuable perspectives from fellow readers.

[DiehardKC]

Deceptive Calm by Patricia Skipper was an excellent book. I'm the type of reader that if the story line doesn't grab my attention within at least the first chapter, I struggle to continue reading. This book got me engaged within the first page. From the beginning you're shown what America was like in the "Jim Crow" south. The author immediately immerses you the the lives of the three main characters, Vanessa, a mixed race orphan who was abandoned at a black orphanage run by the catholic church, her best friend Trisha, who happens to be white and Vanessa's boyfriend Barry who is the son of a prominent black doctor. It's an emotional journey of three friends as they experience the trials they go through as they enter adulthood during the turbulence of the Civil Rights movement and protests of the 1960's. When Vanessa and her friend Trisha decided to try an experiment, which included obtaining the birth certificate of a deceased baby who was white. What started out as a high school "prank", turned into a way for Vanessa to start a new life after what is now known as a "back alley abortion". Vanessa used the birth certificate to get a new social security number. With that Vanessa was able to change her name to Vanessa Vaugh and move to California to start a whole new life.

The book takes the reader through the civil rights movement, abortion rights, stances on interracial marriages, assassination of both Martin Luther King Jr, and Robert Kennedy, which gives the reader the ability to better see what the characters were going through and what people really did go through during that time. I feel that the author was very authentic and made you feel like these characters were real people with real feelings from this time in history.

I will say the ending seemed very abrupt and rushed, But I feel it did the it open to a sequel, which I would definitely read.

[Ali Pinar]

I had similar concerns about the ending. It was not only rushed, but also deviated from the style in the rest of the book. There was too much Hollywood in the ending for me.

[Andrea Paravano]

I also struggled to both connect with the characters, and also to make it through the book. A lot of the book to me felt rushed and the characters never really developed in my mind making the book very hard to comprehend from start to finish. It felt almost as the author wrote each scene in itself and then stuck them together, instead of connecting the dots before creating the scenes.

[Jenny Portash]

When writing historical fiction, you are not only telling the story of American history, but you are providing actual facts that has occurred. Deceptive Calm, is a wonderful book to read especially if you have a hard time following, however, I tend to struggle with the book with some of the facts that were provided. With that being said, I struggle on rating this book. Don’t get me wrong, this book catches your attention and pulls you into where you feel like you are living during the times these events occurred, however, some the events that were mentioned were inaccurate.

Deceptive Calm takes place in the 1960s where blacks were struggling to fit in the white society. Particularly, this book is based on Vanessa Condon, who was left at a black, Catholic orphanage since she was a baby in Charleston, South Carolina. However, Vanessa struggled to get adopted by black parents because of the abnormally color of her skin. Vanessa had very light skin which many people mistaken her as white and not black. Sister Rosalie who is part of the orphanage, loved Vanessa and never treated her any different.

During Vanessa’s teenage years, she decided to run away and start a brand-new life. With the discovery of getting a new social security number under an infant that passed away, Vanessa believed that this was her ticket out of South Carolina. During the 1960s, the social security department never matched the birth and death certificates up, so this type of fraud was almost guaranteed successful. Surprisingly, Vanessa found a birth certificate of a white infant whose name was Vanessa Morgan. Once Vanessa got approved, she headed out to California and enrolled into UC Berkeley, and started her new life.

During her exciting and successful life in California, Vanessa fell in love and got married into one of the wealthiest families. Shortly after, Vanessa gave birth to a child that was diagnosed with a sickle cell trait, which this condition mainly affects black individuals. During this hard time in Vanessa’s life, her façade begins to slowly crumble as her husband plots revenge against her when he finds out that he married a woman who classifies as black. However, Vanessa and her baby survived.

As mentioned previously, I struggle with rating this book. I definitely give it five stars overall because of it catching your attention and educates on how racism has affected during the 60’s, which is still currently happening around the US. However, with the minor details of our history such as Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, makes the rating drop. Dr. Martin Luther King was shot on April 4, 1968, shortly after 6 p.m. In Chapter 5, it was mentioned how he was shot on April 3rd. Yes, I know it is only one day difference but this our American History that has a significant part in many people remember especially black people. Other than the history inaccuracies, if you are sensitive to graphic nature like rape and abortion, as well with profanity such as name calling like n-gger and b-tch, then this book isn’t for you.

Considering all these factors of the book, I would give this book a four out of five. Deceptive Calm is well written and it definitely pulls you in and never lets you lose your attention span. I just wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is sensitive to sexual content and who is under the age of 18.

[Sarah Lewis 3]

Deceptive Calm is a historical drama set in the late 1960s, centering on Vanessa—a light-skinned Black orphan in the American South—whose life becomes defined by a daring identity theft when she assumes the birth certificate of a deceased white child. The story traces her move to California, rise in a newsroom, a marriage into privilege, and the emotional fallout when her baby's sickle cell diagnosis exposes her secret .It offers a vivid Historical Atmosphere.
Skipper’s talent for bringing the late ’60s to life—from small-town Ku Klux Klan terror to Bay Area counterculture. The settings in Charleston and San Francisco are especially immersive.
The narrative tackles rich themes: racial passing, identity, gender, reproductive rights, and systemic injustice. Skipper weaves these elements into a compelling arc that builds toward emotionally intense moments . The book has strong suspense and surprise turns—especially involving Vanessa’s secret marriage, her child’s illness, and the unraveling of her hidden past .
It does have a few shortcomings including
Uneven Writing & Pacing. A few inconsistencies include info-dumps, abrupt transitions, and jarring exchanges. I would describe the writing as unemotional storytelling with a sense of disjointed scenes .
Vanessa’s emotional detachment—her internal conflicts feel underdeveloped, and she often comes across as passive rather than deeply conflicted. The ending was rather short and abrupt.

[Bookish_Tropes]

I find it absolutely abhorrent that in the year 2022 of our Lord a white author was given any sort of platform to condone their use of the N-word at all, but especially so liberally. This was enough for me to put the book down and does not include all the other things other reviewers mentioned. There's absolutely no excuse for this and just reading the first few pages was absolutely unbearable. A white woman, no matter how much she's witnessed first-hand the effects of a segregated Jim Crow South, shouldn't be the authoring these stories in this way and it feels completely out of touch for one to romanticize even a fictional story of abuse and misogynoir towards a Black woman. I'm still beyond shocked at the blatant racism and audacity of it all. Two thousand and twenty-two. I'm so angry she has received any money at all from me for this.

For the record, white isn't supposed to be capitalized; Black is.