A well-conceived and well-executed meditation on trust, privacy, and reputation.
A high school deals with a mass faculty doxxing in this debut literary novel.
Clearwater Community High School has been doxxed. The dating profiles, sexts, and nudes of 41 faculty members have just been published by a local gossip website, and the school has unexpectedly collapsed into complete chaos. The material includes a cache of damaging emails sent by popular English teacher Andy Waters; a series of embarrassing texts documenting an ill-fated fling between the gym coach and the physics teacher; and a video of young math teacher Jennifer Watson having sex with the father of one of her students. It falls to Principal Vince Darten—one of the few Black administrators in the affluent White town of Clearwater, Indiana—to respond to the area’s outrage while attempting to support his teachers: “The community reaction was apoplectic. Daily, he met with more students and parents than he did aggrieved teachers. Some demanded transfers or teacher removals; one student claimed he no longer felt safe in Orchestra and asked for the music program to be suspended or dissolved.” The revelation that their teachers are flawed, sexual beings comes as quite a shock to the students, as does the invasive police investigation to catch the anonymous leaker. When it becomes clear that the “Clearwater Cloudburst” is not a one-time event, the pressure is on for Vince to stop the madness before the school tears itself apart. Rossi’s fluid prose shadows the interior lives of his large cast of characters, as here with Lana Collins, the school’s transgender French teacher: “Unlike many of her fellow educators, Lana greeted the release of her files with a sense of grim resignation rather than shock or betrayal. Her whole life, she reflected, constituted unwanted, forced exposure.” The premise is inspired, and the author plays it out in a way that allows him to grapple with a number of contemporary social cleavages. What’s more, the book speaks to that much older, deeper fear of having one’s true self revealed before the community. While the plot is overly neat at times, it makes for a fun, thought-provoking read.
A well-conceived and well-executed meditation on trust, privacy, and reputation.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2022
ISBN: 979-8986641300
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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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