An evocative reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story set amid the catastrophic collapse of a religious cult.
Young lovers struggle to overcome the powerful forces working to separate them.
Inspired by the events surrounding the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, Johnston’s second novel is a fast-moving and emotionally sophisticated account of the dangers of religious extremism and the tender story of two teenagers caught up in the tragedy that ensues when sectarianism collides with the larger world. Not long after 14-year-old Jaye Carroll and her mother move in early 1993 from California to the millenarian community near Waco controlled by Perry Cullen—known to his followers as “the Lamb”—she meets her contemporary, Roy Moreland, son of the second-generation county sheriff, at a gun show. Jaye is smart, self-aware, and under no illusions about Cullen’s true motivations, while Roy is mainly smitten to discover his first true love. In the early days, relations between Cullen and the surrounding community are peaceful, if coolly distant, but as suspicions grow that he’s accumulating a massive arsenal while sexually abusing young women under the guise of faith, the apocalyptic clash for which the Lamb has been preparing his followers gradually becomes inevitable. The brief chapters that alternate between Jaye’s and Roy’s points of view heighten this rising tension. Interspersed with their narrative are excerpts from a podcast three decades later that features interviews with surviving cult members, law enforcement officials, and others familiar with the tragedy at the ranch. Johnston adeptly shifts between mundane moments and episodes of vivid drama, culminating in the assault on Cullen’s compound that rapidly turns nightmarish for both sides. Even as the bullets fly, a protracted standoff ensues, and the novel moves toward its devastating climax, he keeps his deeply sympathetic protagonists clearly in focus. He also gracefully summons images of the rugged Texas countryside that provides the setting for a novel that beautifully evokes “the hubris, the naivete, the irrationality of love.”
An evocative reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story set amid the catastrophic collapse of a religious cult.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9780399590122
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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