A searing but sensitive look at recovery from irreversible harm.
In Van Hecke’s debut novel, a mother and daughter’s relationship is affected by repressed trauma and subsequent guilt.
The storyalternates between the lives of Colleen,a happily married mother of two, and Rachel, Colleen’s eldest daughter in her first year at Lakeview College.As the novel opens, Colleen; her husband, Derek; and their youngest daughter, Izzy, are driving to Rachel’s cello concert. They seem like a family with typical woes: Derek travels often for work, and his business requires the family to move from Chicago to Arizona and back again within a year—much to Colleen’s chagrin. In college, Rachel tries to gain some independence from her parents by getting an apartment with her best friend, Mandy; she also takes a class on the intersection of gender and violence. As she writes a research paper on the sexual abuse of children, she begins to uncover buried memories of her own sexual abuse by her father. After Rachel tells Colleen what happened to her, many years ago, they’re forced to contend with the damage that Derek has caused. Van Hecke’s novel walks a delicate line, initially depicting Derek as a sympathetic character before candidly exploring the results of his horrific behavior. For much of the novel, Colleen actually attempts to salvage her relationship with Derek and to get Rachel to do the same; however, the memories of her father’s abuse affect all aspects of Rachel’s life, including a burgeoning romantic relationship with a boy in her class. Van Hecke’s prose is most powerful when it describes Rachel’s emotional and physical trauma, and it deftly captures the dissociation that comes with post-traumatic stress disorder; for example, when the young woman’s memories surface, Van Hecke writes, “It was more like her fingers themselves remembered…raking across that couch arm.” During a particularly emotionally fraught confrontation between Colleen and Rachel, Rachel slams a door that’s said to be “like an open, screaming mouth.” In sentences such as these, the ramifications of Derek’s abuse strongly reverberate.
A searing but sensitive look at recovery from irreversible harm.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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