by A.L. Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 29, 2015
An uncompromising but profound urban tale from an incisive author.
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After six years in prison, a woman victimized by the system and her loved ones seeks retribution in Smith’s (Behind Closed Doors, 2015) searing drama.
Dana Toussaint’s father, Bernard, may be a drug dealer, but he provides well for his family in 1980s East St. Louis. When he wants out of the business, though, Dana’s mother, Diana, forces him out of the house. Twelve-year-old Dana, her mother, and her three younger siblings move to an apartment in the projects, and Diana, accustomed to having money, does the unthinkable by pimping Dana out to the perverse Mr. James on a regular basis. Years later, the cocaine-addicted teenager becomes a stripper, but she manages to finally escape Mr. James thanks to Tyree, whom an incarcerated Bernard sent to help her. After thugs brutally murder Dana’s friend Ja’El and most of Ja’El’s family, she decides to get out of East St. Louis by attending Gretna State University. She hasn’t left her old life behind, however, as she transports drugs across state lines for Tyree. Unfortunately, someone’s deception results in Dana’s arrest and imprisonment. Six years inside gives her time to compile a mental list of revenge targets, from her mother and Mr. James to Ja’El’s killers. This thoroughly engaging novel boasts a protagonist whose vengeance is justified; the reprehensible Mr. James, for example, is a pedophilic heroin dealer. Smith’s voice is both sturdy and elegant, delivering blunt, edgy prose that’s never lurid; she makes it clear what happens to Ja’El, for example, without providing graphic details. Dana’s college roommate Alex, a character from Smith’s previous series installment (in which Dana likewise appeared), provides occasional perspective. These moments offer a fascinating alternate view of the protagonist, but they can be jarring when they stray too far from the main story, particularly during Alex’s romance with another character. The somber plot isn’t without a wry sense of humor, though, as when a sardonic Dana notes that she’s “a magnet for men in the drug dealing profession.”
An uncompromising but profound urban tale from an incisive author.Pub Date: Dec. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-61078-7
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Breaking the Line Books
Review Posted Online: March 11, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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