A fun but ultimately forgettable romp despite its well-developed characters.
Veteran essayist Schindler’s (Murder across the Street, 2016) debut novel depicts the steamy après-soccer shenanigans of a suburban mom.
Lindsey and John have seen each other constantly for years at neighborhood functions, play dates, and their respective children’s various recreational activities. But when a spark of sexual attraction flares between them at a party, Lindsey finds its promise impossible to ignore. Her secretive husband’s long hours as a physician continue to erode their marriage, so John’s attentive availability reawakens her desires, both sexual and otherwise. Who was she, she thinks, before this life of manicures and meal preparation, of lunches and laundry? Then a series of anonymous blog posts appears to reveal her secret to the world. As speculation intensifies, Lindsey finds that even lunches with her friends are fraught with tension and unease. She soon realizes that she’s risking not only her marriage, but also her community standing; still, she can’t seem to stop herself from seeing John. Her turmoil is compounded by her parents’ move to Florida, which requires her to clean out her childhood bedroom, but her unresolved emotions about her brother’s untimely death and her own uncertain future keep her from doing so. Soon, Lindsey must face unexpected questions of trust and betrayal before ultimately deciding between the two men she loves. Schindler’s character development is solid, especially in the case of Lindsey’s gal pals, each of whom has her own personality and voice. John is also well-drawn, and his experience of his marriage’s dissolution feels authentic. The author skillfully handles the juxtaposition of Lindsey’s mundane household duties and her extramarital liaisons, and Lindsey’s ambivalence about her choices is emotionally resonant, as are her discussions with her mother about her brother’s death. The pacing is swift, and there are an adequate number of plot twists to keep the story moving forward. But although the sex scenes are sufficiently sizzling, the main characters’ we-can’t-go-on-like-this guilt is a bit trite. Repeated, heavy-handed references to Bravo’s Real Housewives TV series also detract, as do numerous spelling errors (“Lindsey…needed her as a confident”; “No one dropped a bowling bowl on anyone’s foot”). Unattributed statistics at the beginning of each chapter (such as “79% of men and women believe they are destined to find their soul mate”) add little, and the ending strains credulity.
A fun but ultimately forgettable romp despite its well-developed characters.Pub Date: June 27, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 266
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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