A brutal tale of survival with a refreshingly kaleidoscopic perspective.
A cataclysmic event forces the island residents of Cedar Key, Florida, to cut off their only access to the wider world in Bobbitt’s novel.
Before everything changed, both lifelong residents and weekenders in Cedar Key loved the island’s lifestyle, which combined laid-back folksiness with the industriousness of the fishing and clamming industry. One day, a mysterious attack destroys a decommissioned power plant on the mainland, and islanders’ lives are transformed in a blinding flash. The first to perish from radiation poisoning are fishermen who are caught out on the ocean, closest to the blast; one of them, Thomas Buck, is saved only due to his poor seamanship. He later makes it to the mainland and rescues his son, but not without violence, as the family fights to keep their home safe from intruders: “Thomas steadied himself, gripped the shotgun firmly, and headed for the man with the axe. As he did, an avalanche of sound roared from the house.” Society deteriorates dramatically within a few days, with raiders and looters taking whatever they can grab, wielding shotguns and sidearms. Soon, the residents decide to blow up a bridge—their only lifeline to the mainland—and hunker down on Cedar Key forever. However, they, and readers, quickly discover that it will take much more than a sunken bridge to keep their home safe. Bobbitt’s novel features quite a bit of gunplay, but these moments are tempered by the detailed backstories that precede them. Character by character, the author moves through the points of view of the island’s small community, establishing pathos for everyone from the mayor to the retired veterans who were simply looking for honest work before the disaster. Bobbitt presents all these folks as if they’re one’s neighbors, which makes it easier to understand their violent acts as self-defense. Overall, this is a propulsive, character-driven post-apocalyptic ride through an otherwise well-trod genre.
A brutal tale of survival with a refreshingly kaleidoscopic perspective.Pub Date: March 1, 2024
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Aphroditois Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.
A medical student is assigned an overnight shift to observe a Long Island hospital’s psychiatric ward and help with emergencies. You’d never guess what happens next.
Amy Brenner isn’t even interested in psychiatry, the one medical specialty she’s never considered for her own career. Nor is she interested any more in Cameron Berger, the classmate who ended their relationship so that he could spend more time studying, and she’s not pleased to learn that he’s switched his rotation with another student so he can spend some of the next 13 hours persuading Amy to rekindle their romance. Predictably, Cam will be the least of Amy’s troubles. Apart from Dr. Richard Beck and nurse Ramona Dutton, everyone else on Ward D is much more dangerous, from elderly Mary Cummings, whose knitting needles aren’t plastic but sharpened steel, to William Schoenfeld, who’s stopped taking the medications that were supposed to silence the voices telling him to kill people, to Damon Sawyer, who’s confined in Seclusion One and can’t possibly escape, unless a power outage neutralizes the locks. Most threatening of all is Jade Carpenter, whose close friendship with Amy ended eight years ago when Amy turned her in for what ended up being only one of a whole series of thrill crimes. McFadden measures out the complications, revelations, and betrayals with such an expert hand that readers anxiously trying to figure out whom Amy can trust as her goal shifts from ticking off a toilsome requirement to surviving the night may well end up wondering whom they can trust themselves. And isn’t provoking that kind of paranoia what medical thrillers are all about?
A superior entry in the night-on-the-nightmare-ward genre.Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227271
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
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