An inspiring tale of a young man’s efforts to save his family, and himself.
In Stone’s compelling follow-up to Mason’s Daughter (2012), a brave young man flees home and embarks on a journey to adulthood.
Nate Wallace has had to grow up too fast. Forced to watch his father, Roy, drink away their savings and stumble home drunk and violent, he’s the protector of not only his younger sisters but his mother, too. Nate’s anger at Roy escalates one night and comes to a fatal conclusion moments after Roy blurts out that Nate is not actually his son. After attacking Roy, Nate runs back home and learns that Roy has died; Nate must escape to South Carolina before the law catches up with him. While Nate’s temper lands him in trouble soon after fleeing home, his quick thinking and sharp reflexes land him a job that seems too good to be true. Told to merely survey the loading and unloading of goods at a warehouse, Nate is shocked when this mindless task leads to yet another violent encounter—another death by his own hand. On the run once more, Nate finds himself among shady characters as he learns to gamble and deceive to get by. But his luck changes when he finds shelter and kindness with the Cobb family, who not only take care of Nate but also teach him to read and write. As Nate tries to track down his family, his journey away and finally back to them helps him become a more civilized and savvy man who will not only save his family but meet the woman with whom he can start his own family. In the grand tradition of bildungsromans, this coming-of-age tale is captivating. Nate is a classic underdog whose naïveté and determination make him an endearing and relatable hero. His story is not only one of endurance and triumph but growth and development. Told in clear, accessible language, this is a story both adults and teenagers will appreciate for its enjoyable characters and exciting plot.
An inspiring tale of a young man’s efforts to save his family, and himself.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1938749247
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Violet Crown Publishers
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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