Book Review – The Hat by C.S. Boyack

Goodreads Synopsis:

Lizzie St. Laurent is dealing with many of the struggles of young life. She lost her grandmother, and her living arrangements. Her new roommate abandoned her, and she’s working multiple jobs just to keep her head above water.

She inherits an old hat from her grandmother’s estate, but it belonged to her grandfather. This is no ordinary hat, but a being from an alternate dimension. One with special powers.

Lizzie and the hat don’t exactly hit it off right away, but when her best friend’s newborn is kidnapped by a ring of baby traffickers, Lizzie turns to the hat for help. This leads her deep into her family history and a world she’s never known.

Lizzie gives up everything to rescue the babies. She loses her jobs, and may wind up in jail before it’s over. Along the way, she and the hat may have a new way of making ends meet.

Humorous and fun, The Hat is novella length. Wonderful escapism for an afternoon.

My Review:

I so enjoy reading anything written by C.S. Boyack. He has a talent for merging historical, supernatural, mystery and humorous genre elements in his writing. These elements are then woven into a seamless story that carries the reader late into the night saying, “Just one more chapter”.

The Hat is no exception to this. Think Thelma and Louise where Thelma is a landscaping waitress named Lizzie and Louise is a hat. It’s not just any kind of hat, however. It’s powers are magical, but also useful.

Told from the perspective of 20-something Lizzie, Boyack excels at telling the reader what she is experiencing with a sense of humor that masks underlying fluctuations between confidence and fear. Lizzie’s character is engaging, but so is that of the hat. Not since J.K. Rowling brought us the sorting hat in the Harry Potter series has a hat been so entertaining.

Boyack’s incarnation of the hat, however, has many talents. I won’t spoil the plot elements of the story here, but I will  say, If you read this novella, you will not be disappointed by any aspect of it except that it is over so quickly.

Boyack mentions that Lizzie and her hat companion might be worth bringing back at the end of the book in his notes. I second that thought enthusiastically.

So, a tip of the cap to C.S. Boyack for The Hat. I truly believe that his work is on the verge of discovery from a much larger reader market.