Moody and dark in its portrayal of friendship and marriage.
Three college roommates find their lives inextricably linked after the death of a friend.
Aubrey, Jenny, and Kate are assigned to room together at Carlisle College. Aubrey is banking on Carlisle to help her escape her mother's poverty; Jenny grew up in the college town but hopes Carlisle will help her channel her ambitions; and Kate is the rich wild child whose father’s connections helped her get admitted to the school. Their relationships quickly become complicated. One of the guys Kate begins to date, Lucas, dated Jenny in high school. Aubrey’s grades suffer after her mother’s death and because of her drug use with Kate. Jenny agrees to keep Kate’s father apprised of his daughter’s activities, especially given that Kate has been suicidal in the past, in return for future connections. All of these tensions lead up to Aubrey’s decision to commit suicide with Kate, except that Lucas inadvertently dies instead. The girls keep quiet about the circumstances of Lucas’ death, but 20 years later, they all end up living back in their old college town. Now all of them are married, and there are new tensions and secrets. Kate has married another boyfriend from college, Griff, though she is unfaithful to him; Aubrey married a doctor, though she has feelings for Griff; Jenny has become mayor and married Lucas' cousin, Tim, though their memories of the night Lucas died are quite different. When Kate dies at the same railroad bridge where Lucas fell to his death, questions resurface not only regarding who killed Kate, but what happened on the bridge 20 years ago, too. Kate's friends, lovers, and husband all become suspects in her murder, but nearly everyone would rather her death be labeled a suicide and the investigation closed. Campbell’s debut novel is an intriguing whodunit that examines the explosive potential of secrets to destroy friendships, marriages, and lives. While the novel is a page-turner, the characters at times lack depth and humanity, as each person betrays either a friend, a romantic partner, or both. At times, the characters' self-involvement detracts from the suspense of the novel, as introspective moments are spent reflecting on lies that have been told rather than the more serious ethical and moral implications. However, perhaps this is part of Campbell's larger point: complicity through silence contributes as much to each of the crimes as the acts of violence.
Moody and dark in its portrayal of friendship and marriage.Pub Date: May 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-08180-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2017
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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