A heart-rending character study.
A woman searches for answers about the sudden death of her sister in Buhr’s family drama.
A year after the death of her sister, Rachel, from an overdose, Christine Lange receives a surprise phone call from a woman named Keji Nakayama. Walter Anderson, a therapist Christine saw a few times before her sister’s death, has been talking about her and gave Keji, another one of his patients, Christine’s number. When the two women meet, Christine learns that Keji’s brother, Yota, also recently overdosed, that he knew Rachel, and that they both knew Walter. Though Christine has spent the past year hiding from her grief by burying herself in her work for a Seattle nonprofit organization, now she’s determined to find answers about the end of Rachel’s life. Along the way, she becomes close friends with Keji and finally starts to heal. The framing of the story is a bit misleading—the opening seems to set up a mystery surrounding the events leading to Rachel’s death, with Walter as a potential villain. Yet Rachel’s death turns out to be not very mysterious at all, and Walter’s impact on the plot is much smaller than initially implied. The timeline jumps around, from Christine’s childhood to her adolescence to her adulthood, but the skips are never confusing. The story comes together in a collage of grief that is achingly and intimately drawn: “That comment stung…What Christine had only just realized one day previously when her dad said the words, ‘Your sister’s gone,’ Rachel had known well enough to share with her AA sponsor. They weren’t close.” The characters are all fully realized, especially Rachel, though the sections from her point of view feel a bit extraneous. While Christine’s journey to find her sister might have been more powerful if readers didn’t have the information that she’s missing, this quietly painful story of loss is not one to miss.
A heart-rending character study.Pub Date: May 14, 2024
ISBN: 9798891322325
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.
A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.
Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek–like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter.
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781984879325
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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
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