An engrossing tale about sexual assault that skillfully covers a tough and timely topic.
In this debut novel, a woman uncovers a buried traumatic memory through therapy.
Emily Archer, who works for Barnes Advertising and Marketing, is enjoying her time at Clifton Pharmaceutical’s annual gala when a random man gropes her on the dance floor. Enraged, Emily later locates him and slaps him in front of her colleagues. The man turns out to be the new vice president of sales for Clifton (a BAM client) and Emily’s actions earn her a paid suspension from work. Emily finds herself angered by her situation and how women are treated overall in society, particularly how their accounts of sexual assault are rarely believed (“Every inch of her body wanted to scream at someone or everyone for what had happened Saturday night. For what happened to her at work. For what was happening to women everywhere far too often”). Emily starts going to therapy and, through a modality called Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, she discovers a deeply buried memory of being assaulted as a teenager. Meanwhile, Emily’s sister, Cara, is working on a home renovation television show where the new co-host, Stan Hester, faces sexual assault complaints. When Emily learns of Stan, she realizes that he seems extremely familiar and starts investigating his behavior. In her novel, Boulden tackles the topic of sexual assault with great care and empathy while exploring the possible benefits of EMDR as a form of trauma therapy. The author’s prose is accessible, and her execution of Emily’s and Cara’s plotlines as they eventually merge is seamless, particularly as readers find out more about Stan and his vile actions. There are moments when the dialogue feels a bit wooden—resembling lines in a pamphlet on the #MeToo movement rather than realistic conversations—and this can make the story sluggish. But this is a minor misstep, and Emily’s and Cara’s feelings about their situations (as well as the events that affect ancillary characters in the tale) give voice to the very real fears and frustrations that women face daily. Boulden’s examination of a perpetually relevant subject is admirable and relatable.
An engrossing tale about sexual assault that skillfully covers a tough and timely topic.Pub Date: Sept. 13, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9860384-0-7
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Pine Place Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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