A sharply observed and written tale that never seems to add up to much.
Looking for love during America’s Second Civil War can be tricky.
The mutation of the nation’s current political dysfunction into actual civil war is fast becoming a go-to setting for contemporary fiction, but debut novelist Grillo puts a new spin on it by focusing on the romantic misadventures of Hestia, whose husband recently left her to join a pro-Union paramilitary group. The marriage was already shaky, so she’s checking out online dating sites but finds that it’s hard to avoid flirting with guys on the other side. Hestia lives in Baltimore, and there are plenty of Confederate sympathizers in the border state of Maryland. Her own parents are just about to move to one of the 12 seceded states, and it becomes clear over the course of the novel that their dismissive comments about the United States Hestia supports are part of a lifelong pattern of undermining her that clearly contributes to her tendency to eventually find reasons to dump any man unwise enough to show that he likes her. Grillo deftly spins a busy plot that also include Hestia’s friendship with Mildred, an elderly resident at the retirement village where she works, and her growing attachment to her brother-in-law, Jamie, who is raising three kids on his own after his wife was killed in a Confederate terrorist attack. The author’s undeniable point is that daily life goes on even in extreme circumstances; people choose restaurants and places to walk based on the updates in their Safe Zones app, but they continue to eat out and spend time outdoors just the same. The salty comments of Mildred and the village residents participating in Hestia’s oral history project provide welcome relief from Hestia’s often mopey narration, and the characters and social backdrop are equally well drawn, but in the end it’s hard to see why we should care.
A sharply observed and written tale that never seems to add up to much.Pub Date: April 18, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-374-60997-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
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
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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