A tense political story of espionage and intrigue.
In Spacek’s debut novel, an American Ivy League university graduate embarks on a year of teaching in China, unaware he’s in for the adventure of his life.
In 1998, one of Andrew Callahan’s professors at Harvard recommends that he spend a year at the International Affairs University in Beijing, post-graduation. He eagerly accepts but soon realizes things may not be what they seem. During his time in Beijing, Andrew’s opinions of Chinese society are challenged and, sometimes, reinforced, as when he sees a tent village in the middle of a city: “I remembered that one of the first words I had learned in Chinese class was chi ku, which meant ‘eat bitterness.’ It could describe how migrants endured hardship, but it was also applied to the resilience of Chinese people as a whole.” Andrew befriends Will Carter, a fellow American teaching at the university; he also quickly develops an interest in the dean’s assistant, Lily Jiang, who’s also the daughter of a high-ranking Chinese general. Andrew and Lily form an illicit relationship, and before long, he becomes embroiled in a spy mission that puts the lives of Lily and her family—as well as his own—in jeopardy; it all leads to an action-packed conclusion. Spacek tackles complex topics in this thriller, such as international relations at the turn of the millennium and how the relationship between two global superpowers affects their respective citizens; at one point, for example, Andrew reflects while reading Chinese students’ essays about attending American universities and bringing back tech: “Our neoliberal economic professors…had emphasized the benefits of the free flow of labor and goods but, frankly, I was having second thoughts after noting how many of my students considered the theft of intellectual property a national prerogative.” The writing style is tight and eschews extraneous details. The pacing is similarly controlled; Andrew and Lily’s relationship develops naturally, and the rising action doesn’t feel rushed. The characters are also likable and easy to root for when they face seemingly impossible odds.
A tense political story of espionage and intrigue.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63758-386-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.
Hung out to dry by the elders who betrayed them, a squad of pregnant teens fights back with old magic.
Hendrix has a flair for applying inventive hooks to horror, and this book has a good one, chock-full with shades of V.C. Andrews, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Foxfire, to name a few. Our narrator, Neva Craven, is 15 and pregnant, a fate worse than death in the American South circa 1970. She’s taken by force to Wellwood House in Florida, a secretive home for unwed mothers where she’s given the name Fern. She’ll have the baby secretly and give it up for adoption, whether she likes it or not. Under the thumb of the house’s cruel mistress, Miss Wellwood, and complicit Dr. Vincent, Neva forges cautious alliance with her fellow captives—a new friend, Zinnia; budding revolutionary Rose; and young Holly, raped and impregnated by the very family minister slated to adopt her child. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious bookmobile and its librarian, Miss Parcae, who gives the girls an actual book of spells titled How To Be a Groovy Witch. There’s glee in seeing the powerless granted some well-deserved payback, but Hendrix never forgets his sweet spot, lacing the story with body horror and unspeakable cruelties that threaten to overwhelm every little victory. In truth, it’s not the paranormal elements that make this blast from the past so terrifying—although one character evolves into a suitably scary antagonist near the end—but the unspeakable, everyday atrocities leveled at children like these. As the girls lose their babies one by one, they soon devote themselves to secreting away Holly and her child. They get some help late in the game but for the most part they’re on their own, trapped between forces of darkness and society’s merciless judgement.
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593548981
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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