by Heidi L. Kline ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A riveting but overwhelming memoir that might have benefited from a more focused approach.
A Canadian woman’s remembrance of her heartbreaking childhood with her twin sister.
Debut author Kline and her identical twin sibling, Holly, were born in London, Ontario, in 1966. Their mother, the author says, found it difficult to cope with them from the start, often leaving them in soiled diapers for hours on end. After their father left the family, she says, their mother’s drinking, partying, and physical abuse only increased. Although their mother adored their older sister, Theresa, she treated the twins with cold indifference, the author writes—even as they suffered extreme torment from their bullying brother, Todd. Kline goes on to write that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by neighborhood boys, starting when she was 5 years old, and that she endured further abuse in incidents involving her mother, her father, and an older gentleman in the neighborhood who was later arrested for murder. Kline’s story offers a barrage of horrors, as seemingly every new person she met brought her pain and suffering—from her young school friend Michael, who was decapitated by a passing city bus, to her stepfather, Hunter, who dug graves on their farm as part of a plot to murder the family. It’s dark and difficult reading, made even more intense by accounts of seemingly supernatural occurrences; from an early age, Kline writes, she and her sister were capable of picking up otherworldly messages—voices that warned them when they were in danger, or even tried to comfort them. Once, the author says, a psychic explicitly told her that she would one day write a book that would “help millions of people.” These fantastic elements lend the book a frightening tone in the beginning, but an account of a UFO encounter simply feels bizarre. Still, Kline does excellent work in reconstructing a troubling past. She paints her memories with excruciating detail, but also with a slightly detached tone that gives the accounts a grave realism. However, the book addresses so many shocking events that readers may find it difficult to process it all.
A riveting but overwhelming memoir that might have benefited from a more focused approach.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-5255-3671-7
Page Count: 313
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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