This offbeat take on time-hopping stories begins slowly but finds momentum in memorable characterization.
Davis follows up Little by Little (2019) with the final installment in her Tower Room series, featuring two industrious tweens determined to complete a mission.
The Tower Room is a magical space in a house in Toronto that allows certain people to be transported back in time under the guidance of a man named Leo. In the previous book, an 11-year-old named Charlotte Lisa Hansen, Leo’s granddaughter, was one of those people. She and her pal, Henry Jacobs, journeyed back to 1939 to the childhood of a woman named Gwendolyn MacFarlane, and made sure that she didn’t come into possession of a brooch called the Tree of Life. In this work, the year is 1999 and although Charlotte and Henry are still young, Gwendolyn is a rather well-to-do, snobbish 71-year-old who’s led an unhappy, self-involved life. Gwendolyn accompanies Charlotte and Henry on a trip to London, although the elder woman doesn’t particularly like minding children (especially Charlotte) and isn’t fond of most people in general (although she has a fondness for Henry). As an example of her haughty ways, she purchases two first-class tickets for herself for the trip “thereby eliminating the possibility” of talking to a stranger. The trio are set to meet a woman named Sarah Nyman, who now runs a theater school for kids and who played a key role in Gwendolyn’s childhood; Sarah was also in a relationship with Gwendolyn’s brother, Charlie, a Royal Air Force pilot who died in World War II. The trip will be an opportunity for Gwendolyn to confront aspects of her past that she may not even realize are still bothering her. And, naturally, there will be plenty to keep Charlotte and Henry busy.
This combination of knowledgeable children and a snooty curmudgeon makes for some humorous interactions. As strange and serious as the set-up may be, the story features plenty of humor, as when Henry points out that his parents seem to “like the idea of having a child in the abstract,” or when Gwendolyn’s stuck-up nature is illustrated by details such as her holding her teacup “at a precarious angle while she viewed the birds, chipmunks, and late blooming dahlias with a sense of superiority.” The main plot, however, takes some time to develop; early pages are spent with Henry’s parents discussing with Gwendolyn and others whether Henry should make the trip to England at all; this doesn’t do much to ignite an interest in the journey to come, despite the lively banter. Nevertheless, the characters are distinct and likable, with turns of phrase that quickly gives readers a sense of each individual, as when young Charlotte explains how she doesn’t require much sleep, which “makes things difficult for the people around me, but they simply must learn how to cope.” Much of the book’s appeal lies in following Gwendolyn’s emotional journey and finding out what, if anything, she will learn about herself in the end.
This offbeat take on time-hopping stories begins slowly but finds momentum in memorable characterization.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781039192133
Page Count: 372
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2024
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
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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