A perceptive, no-nonsense dramatization of a crucial and timely topic.
When a female TV producer’s documentary on battered women becomes an exposé of a particular shelter, male studio executives threaten her livelihood in this debut novel.
Years ago, Julianne Sloan left behind a chance at news management and moved to TV programming. Now a producer of Chicago Sizzle, she oversees a staff developing public affairs stories. Since segment producer Tina Beyers is out with the flu, Julianne takes over her story on Horizons, a newly opened shelter for women and their children. One of Horizons’ residents is Elisa Adams, who endured years of abuse from her husband, Peter. She finally made the decision to leave when the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Kelly, became a victim of Peter’s anger and violence. Julianne interviews women at the shelter, but an even more important story may start with Elisa. Someone at Horizons is ensuring that it’s not a safe haven for Elisa and Kelly—or the other residents. Sadly, Julianne’s plan to expose what’s happening there is met with resistance from her bosses, chiefly Ted Marshall, since evidently the TV studio’s owners helped build the shelter. Determined to finish her documentary and help other abuse sufferers, Julianne quickly realizes that it may come at the expense of her career. Harrison’s absorbing and timely novel shrewdly tackles issues of abuse, which comes in all sorts of ugly colors, including coercion. The danger suggested by the title generally applies to characters other than the protagonist: Elisa is escaping an abusive marriage, while Tina goes undercover at Horizons. But Julianne is oppressed by domineering men at the workplace, a struggle that’s just as potent and relevant. The author deftly balances her narrative with a few respectable males, including cameraman Jake Rossi, Julianne’s confidant and romantic interest (though his current marriage presents a hurdle). But while scene details are clear and precise, lengthy dialogue lessens the impact of fervent remarks. Julianne’s warning to Ted—“I’m fiery enough to bring you up on charges and nasty enough to create a scandal”—is powerful without its accompanying lines, ending with “If I were you, I’d cut my losses and get the hell away from me now.”
A perceptive, no-nonsense dramatization of a crucial and timely topic.Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5320-2474-0
Page Count: 284
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2018
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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