A Fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod takes a dark turn in a solid debut with a well-conceived plot.
In McMahon’s first novel, shocking events test the loyalties and moral convictions of neighbors at a popular vacation spot.
The Murray and Clarke families own adjacent beachfront properties on Seaview Road on Cape Cod and have summered there for decades. The two Murray children, 19-year-old Katie and 22-year-old Ryan, grew up playing on the beach with the three Clarke children, Amelia, J.J., and Eric. Eric, however, has become estranged from the rest of his successful, Instagram-perfect clan. Katie and Ryan work long hours at the exclusive Monomo Dunes Country Club, where the staff is an amalgam of affluent residents of Monomo, like themselves, and people from neighboring Worona, a blue-collar town that “sniffed the water but didn’t cradle it like its neighbor did.” The club employees socialize after hours, though the Monomo parents frown on too much interaction with townies from Worona, where drugs, particularly opiates, are a problem. After a family-friendly day of Fourth of July parades and games, hordes of young adults descend on nearby Greenstone Lake for some serious partying. The Murray parents are skeptical of the evening activities but trust their kids’ good judgment. After Katie witnesses a crime, she has to make agonizing and dangerous choices. From the onset, a malevolent aura hovers over the action in the form of intermittent musings by an anonymous narrator who has committed heinous acts and attempts to justify them. These interludes are often more effective in driving the plot and generating tension than the frequent anecdotes about incidental characters and attempts at social commentary. Some unnecessary thesaurus-happy diversions detract from the compelling action: A character’s fists are “aware of their thew,” and golfers play on a “tenebrous beach.” But the author often hits the right notes, such as when he describes a local kid’s accent as what “Alec Baldwin was shooting for in The Departed” or suggests the complex social dynamics of a friendly golf game. This suspenseful novel ultimately exposes the blighted underside of a divided locale.
A Fourth of July weekend on Cape Cod takes a dark turn in a solid debut with a well-conceived plot.Pub Date: May 12, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-578-62576-8
Page Count: 258
Publisher: Some Other Time Books
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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