An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.
In this novel by Indigenous Australian author Birch, generational trauma and healing are explored through the lives of a dark-skinned woman and her light-skinned granddaughter.
Odette Brown is the proverbial strong Black woman, but that's where simple categorizations cease. Odette’s daughter, Lila, abandoned her own toddler more than a decade ago, leaving the light-skinned girl in Odette’s care. Now Sissy is on the verge of her teenage years, having known only the love and protection of her grandmother, and a rigid new officer, Sgt. Lowe, has arrived to run the local police station. Unlike the old guard, which was content leaving well enough alone, this new lawman is a zealot, convinced of the righteousness of his cause, which spells trouble for Odette and Sissy. They’re Aboriginals, and with her mother gone, Sissy should fall under the guardianship of the state, a policy that Lowe intends to enforce. The shameful true history of Australia’s racist policies of the early- and mid-20th century is presented in part through Odette’s story but also through snippets about other families torn apart by this disastrous program as Birch shines a light on the countless untold stories of the Stolen Generation. With accessible prose and a driving plot, Birch brings the period to life, and the depth and realism of the characters give the book a feeling of authenticity. Odette's dogged resolve is matched by the kindness and bravery of her supporters, both White and Black, as she and Sissy fight to stay together. Birch plumbs the murk for a story that’s all heart.
An uplifting novel that celebrates love, family, and the women who put those qualities first in their lives.Pub Date: March 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-321353-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: HarperVia
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2022
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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