A touching, evocative depiction of the therapeutic imperative to share and support.
A depressed mother of three flees her family and draws insight and strength from other women in Holly’s debut novel.
On a rainy day in Texas, Jenna Cartwright meets Maggie, whom she describes as “the closest thing I have to a real friend outside of those I left behind in Alabama so many years ago,” for coffee. However, Jenna confesses, she can’t imagine that Maggie “ever struggles with her kids, or her life,” as Jenna does. Only her visits to Bonnie, an elderly local acquaintance who reminds Jenna of her grandmother GiGi, offer some respite. As weeks go by, Jenna grows brusque with her children and increasingly stays in bed much of the time. One day, sitting in the refuge of her parked car in her driveway, Jenna spots her husband, Andrew, returning home from work. She starts the car and drives past him, briefly stopping at Bonnie’s house “to say goodbye.” Back on the road, Jenna fights an impulse to smash into a pole before driving on to Alabama and the home of her best friend, Michelle. Over the following days, Jenna talks to her mother, Michelle, GiGi, and members of GiGi’s walking group about the struggles the women have faced. Jenna returns home with renewed spirit and an enriching new focus in her life. The author effectively captures the complexity of Jenna’s depression through her first-person narration. Jenna seems self-involved and even unlikable at times yet also strikingly articulate about her mental state: “I am numb to the sight before me. Numb to the sounds. Numb to the feelings of anger, frustration, and guilt that I know are there, somewhere beneath the surface.” While the men and children in the narrative remain somewhat shadowy, the range of women’s stories presented here dramatically showcases how despair and loneliness can be relieved through connection with others.
A touching, evocative depiction of the therapeutic imperative to share and support.Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9798987966204
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Three Sparrows Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 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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