An ungainly novel that undermines the promise of its premise.
Ancient evil at large in the modern world.
Horror has always been—at least, in its Anglophone form—a genre in which repetition is not just accepted but expected. An author doesn’t have to show us something new, because showing us something old in a new way provides its own thrills. What Barker offers here is essentially a vampire tale with subtle echoes of Dracula. Instead of trains and coaches, we have air travel. Telegrams are replaced by information gleaned from the dark web. And, in place of Bram Stoker’s bloodsucking revenant, we get an elusive woman with a camera and an eldritch god to feed. The story begins when two travelers, Jake and Mariko, discover that they share a terrible affinity. Both have lost loved ones to the same uncanny affliction, and both blame a strange woman who seems to be ageless. Mariko connects Jake with her dead brother’s wife. His interview with Mariko’s sister-in-law is both fascinating and chilling, as she describes her husband’s transformation from a charismatic artist to a monster she no longer recognized. Jake is convinced that the woman who seduced Mariko’s brother is the same woman who destroyed his best friend. After this, most of the text is composed of “testimonies” Jake gathers from other victims’ survivors and scenes from the perspective of the woman he’s hunting, and it’s a mess. However, horror fiction can survive—and even benefit from—mess. Dracula is a mess, but it’s a fascinating mess that moves at a fevered pace. Jake’s testimonies are repetitive and do nothing to advance the narrative, and the shifts in perspective seldom tell us anything new. The worldbuilding is rickety and kind of cringe. It turns out that the more you explain a terrible entity beyond human comprehension, the less terrible it gets. Similarly, the villain’s backstory makes her less, rather than more, frightening.
An ungainly novel that undermines the promise of its premise.Pub Date: tomorrow
ISBN: 9780593718292
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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