A turgid cautionary tale about addiction that hammers home its point over and over again.
Morris’ debut novel is a slow-moving tale of one man’s lifelong descent into substance addiction and its long-lasting impact on him and the people around him.
Academically gifted Tom Jerold, a competent engineer, lives a comfortable middle-class life with his loving second wife and two children after he escaped substance abuse and institutionalization. Tom’s second downward spiral starts with a short, tawdry affair, followed by a return to drinking and the losses of his family and job. Tom quickly settles into a state of ennui: “I couldn’t seem to get serious about finding another job, perhaps because I could no longer imagine taking a job seriously.” As detailed in a dozen of journals covering a number of years, Tom’s jobs and relationships continue to deteriorate as he struggles to find a place where he fits in but runs away before it can happen. “I knew the booze and the dope were killing me,” he says. “The relationship stuff, though, it felt good. A lot of guys, including me, kind of turned to those intense flings as our reward for being sober. When you stop throwing up on people and wetting the bed, you’ve got a better shot at hooking up.” The only constant is a photo of two balanced rocks from a place he found happiness years before. It’s to this park that his children, Jolene and Mark (himself an addict), bring his cremated ashes after his untimely death in an effort to better understand the father that kept coming in and out of their lives. To better define Tom and what made him that way, Morris smoothly alternates between Tom’s depressing freefall and his children’s journey after he dies. The problem ultimately lies in the fact that Tom isn’t developed into a character about whom readers will truly care. He seems almost indifferent to sobriety, with the narrative making clear that he cares little for those closest to him, particularly for himself. Instead, the novel is about a life wasted. As he says, “Nearly every attempt by me at any kind of spiritual awakening that had any enduring effect fell short.”
A turgid cautionary tale about addiction that hammers home its point over and over again.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
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
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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