A bizarre, memorable, and messy occult tale.
Years after escaping a cult, a woman rejoins the diabolical organization to take it down in this conclusion to a supernatural trilogy.
Psychologist Alina Masters and her family have led blissfully uneventful lives on the Greek island of Corfu. But when her construction worker husband takes a nasty fall, his hospital transfer sends them back to Chicago, Alina’s home. Alina may know who’s responsible for this reputed accident—her former lover Galen Drake, who belongs to the cult Ascension. She was once part of it, too, but fled the cult when pregnant with her and Galen’s child, Destin, who is now 6 years old. Craving some form of revenge against Galen, Alina squeezes her way back into Ascension. Surprisingly, Galen proposes an alliance to knock Ascension’s higher-ups, including his own mother, out of their seats of power. Alina is all for ending the cult that’s been a perpetual threat to her family. She maintains the pretense that she and Galen have reunited while struggling to ensure that Destin stays safe. But despite her previous involvement with the cult, Alina has much to learn, including that her mom has an unexpected link to Ascension as well. Bacon’s hazy plot reveals few details on the cult; even Alina doesn’t seem to know what Ascension is or its three rules (for example, “Respect the hierarchy”). But things get clearer in the latter half, and the organization’s evil, with a supernatural bend, is unmistakable throughout. The author delivers intriguing set pieces, like a potential terrorist strike and a political fundraiser for Galen, a United States senator with vice presidential aspirations, where Alina makes headlines. The book often displays a vibrant prose: Speaking with a pastor about Destin, Alina chokes out “an ugly sob, reliving the image of his tiny hands covered in blood.” Unfortunately, long-winded and occasionally repetitive sentences as well as grammatical flubs and abundant misspellings (“fain” instead of feign; “segway” instead of segue; “flea” instead of flee) permeate the narrative.
A bizarre, memorable, and messy occult tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 445
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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