A taut, compelling family tale.
A debut novel mixes high school drama, teen romance, and a strong thread of mystery and thriller.
New kids are a big deal in the quiet town of Millington Valley. All the more so when they’re as eye-catching as Molly Hanover, who makes a splash when she arrives in her senior year of high school and begins going out with football star Wade Thornton. Wade’s friendships fray, especially with his best friend and teammate, Tommy “Legs”; cheerleaders like Missi Reynolds harass Molly over her newfound happiness; and her mother’s landlord hangs around, becoming more than a little creepy. But when Molly is about to tell Wade and her mother, Ann, about the worst of what’s really been happening to her, the rush of emotion and Wade’s nasty drinking habit put them in a terrible accident. Molly wakes to discover scars weighing on her once-beautiful features while holes and suspicions eat at her memory. With her memory in pieces and her injuries severe, matters only seem to be getting worse for her, Ann, and Wade. If no one can put together what Molly was so desperate—and afraid—to tell her loved ones, disaster will be just around the next bend. With strong prose and pacing, the pages turn quickly and easily. Ann’s need to provide a good life for her daughter; Molly’s insecurities and love of words; and Wade’s fraught relationship with his town, team, and alcohol all feel genuine and well-conceived. That said, Christie’s story can feel light on detail at times. Wade’s initial, intense feelings for Molly are well-conveyed, but their relationship doesn’t have quite enough space, communication, and context to grow and deepen. The same goes for Molly, whose feelings when dealing with bullying and harassment are clear and palpable, but who has almost no time to process the worst of what happens to her before the accident seals her memory. It’s also worth noting that few of the secondary players really seem to have lives outside of their dealings with the protagonists. That said, the central characters’ story has plenty to make it worthwhile, and many readers are sure to feel at home with this intriguing book despite any shortcomings.
A taut, compelling family tale.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-61296-940-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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