A page-turning story of a woman’s struggle to overcome abuse and make a new path forward.
In Meade’s (The Summer of the Disco King, 2011) novel, a teacher struggles to flee an abusive relationship while navigating her role at a new school.
Kate Ross is eager to start the year as a sixth-grade teacher at her district’s new middle school. Polished, professional and well-loved by her students, she seems to have it all. But she’s hiding a dark secret: Al, her husband of 10 years, is an abusive alcoholic, and she fears for the safety of both herself and her daughter. As Kate wrestles with her decision about whether to leave Al, life gets more complicated at work when a student is injured when Kate’s on recess duty. Meanwhile, Kate’s “looks and brains” attract the attention of several suitors, including the charming Pete Lange, a school administrator. Kate is equally smitten, but their co-worker relationship and her personal troubles seem to stand in the way of happiness. Meade, a former teacher, finds drama in the seemingly mundane details of middle school life—the stress an instructor feels when being evaluated, the delicate matter of dealing with an irate parent, the personality clashes between teachers. Though the stage occasionally seems crowded with minor players, Westmore Middle School is populated by an amusing cast of characters, and their foibles add levity to an otherwise serious story. But the heart of this novel involves Kate’s evolution from battered housewife to empowered single woman. It’s an emotionally resonant story, and Kate’s fear and anxiety are palpable as she moves gingerly around her husband, doing anything she can do to avoid provoking his wrath. Meade sprinkles her narrative with some tense action scenes—e.g., a threatening, late-night phone call from Al that causes Kate to flee her apartment in terror—that will keep readers on edge. Through her relatable, vivacious protagonist, Meade offers a window into the deep struggles of an abuse victim, with Kate first desperately hoping that Al will change, then finally realizing that “she could not continue to live under the same roof with him, not for any reason.”
A page-turning story of a woman’s struggle to overcome abuse and make a new path forward.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-938883-48-4
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As she seeks to repair bridges, Cat awakens anger and treachery in the hearts of those she once betrayed. Making amends,...
Before sobriety, Catherine "Cat" Coombs had it all: fun friends, an exciting job, and a love affair with alcohol. Until she blacked out one more time and woke up in a stranger’s bed.
By that time, “having it all” had already devolved into hiding the extent of her drinking from everyone she cared about, including herself. Luckily for Cat, the stranger turned out to be Jason Halliwell, a rather delicious television director marking three years, eight months, and 69 days of sobriety. Inspired by Jason—or rather, inspired by the prospect of a romantic relationship with this handsome hunk—Cat joins him at AA meetings and embarks on her own journey toward clarity. But sobriety won’t work until Cat commits to it for herself. Their relationship is tumultuous, as Cat falls off the wagon time and again. Along the way, Cat discovers that the cold man she grew up endlessly failing to please was not her real father, and with his death, her mother’s secret escapes. So she heads for Nantucket, where she meets her drunken dad and two half sisters—one boisterously welcoming and the other sulkily suspicious—and where she commits an unforgivable blunder. Years later, despairing of her persistent relapses, Jason has left Cat, taking their daughter with him. Finally, painfully, Cat gets clean. Green (Saving Grace, 2014, etc.) handles grim issues with a sure hand, balancing light romance with tense family drama. She unflinchingly documents Cat’s humiliations under the influence and then traces her commitment to sobriety. Simultaneously masking the motivations of those surrounding our heroine, Green sets up a surprising karmic lesson.
As she seeks to repair bridges, Cat awakens anger and treachery in the hearts of those she once betrayed. Making amends, like addiction, may endanger her future.Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-04734-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
This novel began as a reworking of W.W. Jacobs' horror classic "The Monkey's Paw"—a short story about the dreadful outcome when a father wishes for his dead son's resurrection. And King's 400-page version reads, in fact, like a monstrously padded short story, moving so slowly that every plot-turn becomes lumberingly predictable. Still, readers with a taste for the morbid and ghoulish will find unlimited dark, mortality-obsessed atmosphere here—as Dr. Louis Creed arrives in Maine with wife Rachel and their two little kids Ellie and Gage, moving into a semi-rural house not far from the "Pet Sematary": a spot in the woods where local kids have been burying their pets for decades. Louis, 35, finds a great new friend/father-figure in elderly neighbor Jud Crandall; he begins work as director of the local university health-services. But Louis is oppressed by thoughts of death—especially after a dying student whispers something about the pet cemetery, then reappears in a dream (but is it a dream) to lead Louis into those woods during the middle of the night. What is the secret of the Pet Sematary? Well, eventually old Jud gives Louis a lecture/tour of the Pet Sematary's "annex"—an old Micmac burying ground where pets have been buried. . .and then reappeared alive! So, when little Ellie's beloved cat Church is run over (while Ellie's visiting grandfolks), Louis and Jud bury it in the annex—resulting in a faintly nasty resurrection: Church reappears, now with a foul smell and a creepy demeanor. But: what would happen if a human corpse were buried there? That's the question when Louis' little son Gage is promptly killed in an accident. Will grieving father Louis dig up his son's body from the normal graveyard and replant it in the Pet Sematary? What about the stories of a previous similar attempt—when dead Timmy Baterman was "transformed into some sort of all-knowing daemon?" Will Gage return to the living—but as "a thing of evil?" He will indeed, spouting obscenities and committing murder. . .before Louis must eliminate this child-demon he has unleashed. Filled out with overdone family melodrama (the feud between Louis and his father-in-law) and repetitious inner monologues: a broody horror tale that's strong on dark, depressing chills, weak on suspense or surprise—and not likely to please the fans of King's zestier, livelier terror-thons.
Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1983
ISBN: 0743412281
Page Count: 420
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1983
BOOK TO SCREEN
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