A terrifying story that unflinchingly explores the grim underworld of human trafficking.
A school principal in Arizona crosses into Mexico to rescue a teenage girl from sex traffickers in Christ’s novel.
Enrique Tavish narrowly escapes a nightmare—guns blazing, he rescues his teenage daughter, Francesca, held captive and raped by members of a Mexican drug cartel. He returns to his more pedestrian life as the principal of Polk High School in Arizona but is tormented by thoughts of Rosa Martinez, the young girl who helped him find Francesca and who remains a prisoner of human traffickers somewhere in Mexico, sold into slavery by her own brother, Memo. Enrique makes a bold decision to travel across the border to the infamous red light district in Nogales to find Rosa, a fateful decision he shares with no one, not even his wife, Eloise. Implausibly—much of Christ’s riveting drama demands a considerable suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader—Enrique finds Rosa, drugged into a stupor, and must figure out how to convey her across the border as they are pursued by the thugs who believe they own her, afraid to encounter either the border patrol or the zealous militias who voluntarily police the border. Enrique is a memorably complex character; while heroically devoted to liberating Rosa, he’s also attracted to her, a condition exacerbated by his sexual addiction (“Reminded that she’s only fifteen, I feel some shame and avert my eyes”). Fascinatingly, Rosa’s sexual exploitation leaves him both horrified and queasily empathetic with the attackers, as his addiction leads him to “see every woman as a sexual target.” But Enrique has always lived in the interstices between different worlds—while he is light-skinned and often passes for White, he grew up in a Spanish-speaking household and largely befriended other Latine kids. The violence, especially toward the conclusion of the book, becomes increasingly fantastical, and this gritty drama flirts with devolving into a formulaic action movie. However, this is still a captivating and intelligent tale.
A terrifying story that unflinchingly explores the grim underworld of human trafficking.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798386120573
Page Count: 277
Publisher: Independently Published
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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