An unevenly executed tale of injustice, bravery, and morality.
As the Civil War wanes, a reckless Southern sailor attempts to steal Confederate treasure in Smith’s historical novel.
By 1865, Confederate Navy midshipman Yancey Arvindale is disillusioned by the war. His crew is tasked with guarding a loaded train traveling from Richmond, Virginia, to Abbeville, South Carolina, on barely functional tracks. The trip is part of the real-life historical record, but the train’s inventory and its dispersal have long been open to speculation. In this novel, Arvindale determines that the Confederate treasury belonged to no one: “If the South was beaten and the Confederacy ceased to exist, who owned it?” In breathtaking episodes, the sailor manages to offload containers filled with gold, bury them alongside the tracks, and return to the train. In another plotline, a young Black woman named Ellie has escaped the plantation where she was enslaved after she and members of her family suffered horrible abuses. While attempting to find safe passage North, she encounters friends and foes, and Smith reveals her boldness along the way. Ellie’s and Arvindale’s paths inevitably intersect. The third plotline occurs in present-day Michigan, where billionaire Jonas Arvin attempts to track the elusive source of his family’s fortune. Overall, the author’s comprehensive knowledge of the Civil War and its aftermath lends depth and texture to a high-stakes, well-paced adventure saga. Some portions of Ellie’s story comprise the book’s weakest moments, though. The author is extremely adept at telling a compelling story about a disenchanted, amoral Confederate soldier. He’s on much shakier ground when attempting to portray people of color in this setting, and some scenes lack verisimilitude. For example, Ellie, who’s been enslaved her whole life and has never witnessed a transaction involving money, realizes in her very first cash encounter that she’s being overcharged. After the overcharger uses a racist slur, Yancey asks Ellie how the term made her feel, and she blithely responds, “Aw, nothin’,” because, she says, everyone calls Black people that. Ellie also builds a successful business without any resources and kills multiple people without any repercussions. In addition, the novel’s ending feels contrived and somewhat problematic.
An unevenly executed tale of injustice, bravery, and morality.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-68-495373-6
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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