An earnest but sometimes credulity-straining story of empowerment and community formation.
A teenage girl finds her queer identity in the midst of a family crisis in Skipstone’s novel.
The small town of Clear, Alaska, isn’t the most inviting place to be an openly queer teen. It’s a conservative town where most people think Covid-19 is a hoax, even as local cases increase. Ever since in-person classes have resumed, high school senior Crystal Rose has been having sex dreams about her secret crush Haley Carson, who was once her best friend. Crystal intervenes one day when Haley’s boyfriend, Dylan Whitley, gropes Haley in the school hallway. The moment reinvigorates the girls’ friendship—Haley is impressed with Crystal’s self-possession and artistic abilities—and their relationship starts to blossom into something more. Meanwhile, a new girl arrives at school: Payton Reed, an out lesbian who doesn’t care what anyone thinks about her. When Crystal’s grandparents, who raised her, leave town to visit the hospital—they think they might have Covid-19—Crystal invites Haley to hide out from Dylanat her house. Then Crystal’s parents, whom she’s long believed to be dead, show up in Clear for the first time in 14 years. Along with Haley, Payton, and a few other new friends, Crystal attempts to adjust to the changes in her life while defending herself from those who would destroy her happiness. Skipstone’s prose is urgent and expressive, as when Crystal ruminates over her mother Maya’s alcoholism: “Crystal won’t speak because she’s afraid of what she’ll say. Why couldn’t Maya have entered rehab by herself? Gotten sober and gone back to her parents and kids?” The novel deals with issues of queer identity, domestic violence, sexual abuse, addiction, and neurodiversity, and at times, the plot feels overstuffed with various tensions. In part, this is a result of Skipstone’s decision to set the novel over the course of two days, during which an improbably large number of significant events occur. Although the author’s attempts to speak to a great many issues is admirable, she doesn’t allow enough space in this narrative to give them each the proper amount of emotional weight.
An earnest but sometimes credulity-straining story of empowerment and community formation.Pub Date: May 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73-700642-8
Page Count: 330
Publisher: Skipstone Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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