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A haunting novel that lays bare the ugliness of narcissism at its most extreme.

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THE SEDUCTION

Name: THE SEDUCTION
Author: Joanna Briscoe
ISBN: 978-1-40887-349-6

by Joanna Briscoe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 25, 2020

When a woman falls under the thrall of an unscrupulous therapist, she must reconcile with the demons of her past in order to confront the present.

Beth is drifting through life with some appearance of ease, a successful London artist with a precocious preteen daughter and a charmingly attentive and supportive husband. In fact, it’s Sol’s suggestion that she seek out therapy as Fern’s 13th birthday approaches; Beth was abandoned by her own mother when she was 13, and he wants to help her navigate the inevitably painful memories that will arise. So Beth begins to meet with Dr. Tamara Bywater, but as therapy continues, she begins to feel more and more estranged from her daughter. Sol and Tamara both try to soothe her, reminding her that it's natural teen behavior to pull away and acknowledging Beth’s own baggage when it comes to mothering, but soon, Beth and Fern are barely speaking. When Tamara begins to make friendly overtures, Beth is flattered and desperate to keep her attention. Slowly, she finds herself deeply fascinated by Tamara, open to a flirtation that will threaten everything she holds dear. Briscoe slowly and skillfully unspools the sexual and psychological tension to the breaking point; even as it becomes apparent to the reader that Tamara Bywater is disturbed and manipulative, we can't help but understand, for a time, Beth’s clinging to the adventure and romance she offers. Buried at the heart of Beth’s choices are her own fears that she is, in fact, unlovable, as proven by her mother’s constant rejection. Like the smooth surface of an oil painting, the novel presents a slickly beautiful vision of fantasy, layered under with ferocious, stabbing brushstrokes of pain.

A haunting novel that lays bare the ugliness of narcissism at its most extreme.

Pub Date: Aug. 25, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-40887-349-6

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Review Posted Online: June 17, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020

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A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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DEVOLUTION

by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020

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. 10, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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A tale that’s at once familiar and full of odd and unexpected twists—vintage King, in other words.

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FAIRY TALE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 6, 2022

Narnia on the Penobscot: a grand, and naturally strange, entertainment from the ever prolific King.

What’s a person to do when sheltering from Covid? In King’s case, write something to entertain himself while reflecting on what was going on in the world outside—ravaged cities, contentious politics, uncertainty. King’s yarn begins in a world that’s recognizably ours, and with a familiar trope: A young woman, out to buy fried chicken, is mashed by a runaway plumber’s van, sending her husband into an alcoholic tailspin and her son into a preadolescent funk, driven “bugfuck” by a father who “was always trying to apologize.” The son makes good by rescuing an elderly neighbor who’s fallen off a ladder, though he protests that the man’s equally elderly German shepherd, Radar, was the true hero. Whatever the case, Mr. Bowditch has an improbable trove of gold in his Bates Motel of a home, and its origin seems to lie in a shed behind the house, one that Mr. Bowditch warns the boy away from: “ ‘Don’t go in there,’ he said. ‘You may in time, but for now don’t even think of it.’ ” It’s not Pennywise who awaits in the underworld behind the shed door, but there’s plenty that’s weird and unexpected, including a woman, Dora, whose “skin was slate gray and her face was cruelly deformed,” and a whole bunch of people—well, sort of people, anyway—who’d like nothing better than to bring their special brand of evil up to our world’s surface. King’s young protagonist, Charlie Reade, is resourceful beyond his years, but it helps that the old dog gains some of its youthful vigor in the depths below. King delivers a more or less traditional fable that includes a knowing nod: “I think I know what you want,” Charlie tells the reader, "and now you have it”—namely, a happy ending but with a suitably sardonic wink.

A tale that’s at once familiar and full of odd and unexpected twists—vintage King, in other words.