Readers who find themselves riveted by stories like Sybil and A Beautiful Mind will likely enjoy this absorbing, but...
A family takes on the challenge for caring for two abused children in this inspiring debut novel.
After finding out that 4-year-old Katie has been sexually abused by her father and witnessed her mother’s murder, Matthew and Carolyn O’Gorman adopt and raise their niece as if she were their own child. But as Katie struggles to deal with the violent memories of her mother’s death and the horrible abuse she’s endured at the hands of her father, she tests her adoptive parents’ patience with her jealous nature and cruel temper. When Luis, another abused child, enters their lives, the O’Gorman family accepts him with open arms—Katie most of all. Together, Katie and Luis form a friendship, and eventually a relationship, as they help each other recover from the unspeakable things they’ve had to endure. Rosa’s novel, inspired by her interest in child abuse cases, offers readers a glimpse into the lives of those affected by abuse. From Katie’s inability to distinguish fantasy from reality to her Aunt Carolyn’s unfailing patience and accepting nature, Rosa provides a subjective view of the bad and the good. While some readers will be intimidated by the wordy nature of this mammoth 750-page novel, and the confusing tendency to shift between the present and the past, others will appreciate the honesty and gentleness that Rosa weaves into each sentence. Although some characters come across as one-dimensional, the author does a great job of acknowledging Katie’s struggles and balances them with her accomplishments. The novel’s optimistic conclusion allows the reader to see the extent of Katie’s growth, providing hope that real-life abused children may fare as well as she.
Readers who find themselves riveted by stories like Sybil and A Beautiful Mind will likely enjoy this absorbing, but long-winded, novel.Pub Date: April 23, 2010
ISBN: 978-1439251058
Page Count: 764
Publisher: BookSurge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2011
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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