Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).
A once-gregarious psychology student with a traumatic past and a fondness for cats finds herself at the center of a dangerous revenge story.
Holly Serpenta and Lorelei Green were best friends at an elite East Coast college known for its psychology department—until their friendship was torn apart by a charismatic and manipulative professor. Now they've been estranged for 20 years. Holly is rich and powerful and has two grown children, and she's being named Woman of the Year at a gala dinner that will include guests like Sonia Sotomayor, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Zadie Smith; Lorelei, who's the narrator, remains alone and is recently unemployed from a job she didn't much like to begin with, though she does have her cats. She blames Holly for a traumatic incident that caused her to drop out of college just before the final semester, and she's been following Holly's career closely ever since. Lorelei isn't happy about how well her former friend is doing and begins to plot her revenge. But she's not the only one. Someone else from their past has demons, too, and all roads lead back to the bizarre psychology department at Woodward College. Though this book is a page-turner and Lorelei's first-person voice feels authentic, the friendship between Holly and Lorelei is thinly described. We see the whole thing in flashbacks, most of which are scenes that Lorelei just summarizes. Lorelei describes the women as best friends, but that friendship doesn't come across in the book. Though Bell successfully flips the "crazy cat lady" trope on its head and offers a satisfying ending, a number of the characters, including Holly, are flat, and the motivation of the charismatic professor feels far-fetched, like he's a cartoon villain, which might have worked better if his department head wasn't also maniacal.
Despite some unconvincing elements, this novel will resonate with anyone interested in psychology (or cats).Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-9821-7730-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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