Eight heartening reminders that there are few connections impossible to forge or mend.
Crotty’s second collection shares the everyday struggles and joys of women and girls peppered through Middle America.
There are no spectacles in these stories, and they are all the better for it. The characters, many of them queer, are familiar, well meaning, and flawed. The conflicts they face range from universal to less common, including first heartbreak, rocky transitions into adulthood, losing an infant, and surviving sexual assault. "Halloween" centers on high school senior Jules and her whirlwind romance, amid crushed toppings and sticky counters, with frozen yogurt–shop co-worker Erika, a college student. Advised by her kooky grandma Jan, Jules learns that while the most thrilling connections are not always the healthiest, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stick around to see what happens. The title story features 73-year-old Betsy, a volunteer for an organization that provides support to survivors in the aftermath of rape, and 23-year-old survivor Lenna. Though Betsy does not identify as a “do-gooder kind of person” and only began volunteering after her therapist suggested it would help her cope with estrangement from her only child, her compassionate presence lays the groundwork for connection between two lonely people. In "Dear Matt,” Caroline, newly graduated from law school and recovering from a breakup, implores her new brother-in-law to help her sister, Ella, forgive her after an explosive fight triggered by the clashes between Matt and (now) Ella’s Mormon beliefs and Caroline’s sexuality. While this story isn't as tight as some of the others, the letter format adds some nice variety to the collection, and the line “I realized this was her real and actual life, the one she wanted and meant to keep” is a gratifying distillation of a theme that runs through the book. Crotty repeatedly signals that it is not just all right, but good, to realize your perception of someone is fundamentally misaligned with their perception of themself; her characters make confident assumptions, feel surprised, back up, and reacquaint themselves with one another, becoming wiser and more tolerant with each misjudgment and readjustment.
Eight heartening reminders that there are few connections impossible to forge or mend.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781637681008
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Autumn House Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: yesterday
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
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
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