An unreliable narrator maintains a dubious tone that still manages to electrify.
James’ psychological thriller debut offers the tale of a young woman in an interrogation room, recapping a drug-fueled crime spree spanning nine U.S. states.
Texas cops have a disheveled, bloody girl at the station for questioning. The unnamed girl’s been eluding the law for quite some time with her sometimes-lover Noah. The couple steal liquor and boost cars, criminal acts that ultimately escalate into bank robberies and burning down a church. These deeds lead to a death or two, including an accidental shooting in the course of a robbery. The girl’s probably being insincere in her statement, as it’s clearly a chore for her not to laugh when Officer Gibson treats her like the victim. But authorities really want to know where still-on-the-lam Noah is, and a fed known only as the Agent (or simply Agent) isn’t as easy for the girl to toy with as Gibson. He’s blunt and to the point: is Noah even alive? Alcohol and LSD, however, may have muddled the girl’s memories, as she debates whether she’s remembering certain events or if they’re only in her mind. Agent’s simultaneously working the case of a serial killer calling himself Alighieri; his method is decapitation. But before Agent can reach the truth, Alighieri’s and the girl’s paths intersect in a frightening and unexpected way. The purposefully ambiguous narrative complements the girl’s hazy recollections. Seeing her green-eyed, “grimacing twin” in a bathroom, for example, could be an acid trip, and the first-person perspective makes it clear that at least her confusion’s genuine. At the same time, additional points of view ground the story, like Alighieri on the hunt or Agent at different murder scenes. James’ frenzied writing style is staggering. The girl’s downtime at a quarry, for one, is just as exhilarating as the couple fleeing cops: “My limbs were pulled apart with violent force from the churning water as it surged from my intrusion.” Readers hoping for a nice, clean wrap-up to explain everything may be disappointed. Regardless, it’s a suitable ending for Agent, Alighieri, and the girl, despite not having all the answers when the story’s over.
An unreliable narrator maintains a dubious tone that still manages to electrify.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5197-2926-2
Page Count: 346
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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