2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

Frog Music by Emma Donoghue


I consider "based on a true story", to be a work of fiction based on real people or real events. Nonfiction is a true story, not based on one. Splitting hairs, maybe, but that's my interpretation of it.

Frog Music is a fictional account of the real-like unsolved murder of Jenny Bonnet in 1870s San Francisco. Overall I thought it was a pretty good book, although some of the plot points were a bit gritty and none of the characters were all that likable. But I loved the setting - it's not one I've really read about before and it kept things interesting for me.

I don't know who really killed Jenny Bonnet (the author admits she doesn't either, that this is just a work of fiction), but I thought that this tale was plausible enough. Don't know if it's true, but I don't much care - as a work of fiction, the story kept me wondering, and I didn't guess the ending.