Old-school poetry with grand themes and darkly romantic execution.
Mythology, mayhem, and the macabre roil this set of haunting poems.
Lind includes some 55 pieces written over 35 years, many of them infused with self-consciously archaic language and themes. His earlier poems have a highly rhetorical sensibility, as in the phallic anthem “Priapus”: “With what shall ye compare my hideous strength, / Mere Man? / With the night-black bull that rears and spits / In its cloven lust?” His middle-period poems often deploy a singsong style whose seeming simplicity and artlessness disturbingly highlight sinister, sometimes-violent content, as in “The Pretty Magpie”: “Once I loved a little dog, / A golden spaniel bitch, / They came and shot it all to death / And left it in a ditch.” His late period casts poems in an idiom that’s more modern and impressionistic in its continued treatment of fraught, primal material, as in “The First and the Last.” He also offers a long adaptation of the Icelandic saga of Gunnar and Hallgerður, about a woman who brings her husband nothing but trouble; it’s a riveting, gore-spattered epic suffused with eerie Nordic hallucination: “And woven into her straggled hair, / The bones of children / That rattled and clinked in the wind.” Lind’s poems feature strong narratives, bold voices, and evocative imagery that’s besotted by both Eros and Thanatos, as in the title poem, a gothic imagining of a crowlike lover that’s an inspired mashup of the work of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire: “I am but carrion for your clever mouth / And quick, sharp fingers that rake and rack.” Overall, this collection is a great read for those who like hotblooded verse.
Old-school poetry with grand themes and darkly romantic execution.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-80227-216-1
Page Count: 354
Publisher: Timothy John Jacobs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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