A visceral debut novel set against the splendor of a national treasure.
This thriller follows four college students as a stalker hunts them on the Appalachian Trail.
Jerry Allen, Diane Cain, Linda Baldwin, and Bill Martin are students from Appalachian State University on their semester break. They’ve decided to hike the Appalachian Trail from Tennessee through North Carolina and into Virginia. As a couple, Diane and Bill have hiked sections of the trail before, but lovers Jerry and Linda are new to the experience. The foursome travels without cellphones, though, which proves to be a dangerous mistake: Diane, while relieving herself away from the group, gets sexually assaulted by a stranger. Bill insists on hunting down the perpetrator, even if they must leave the trail for the deeper woods. When they camp for the night, their wilderness-wise stalker toys with them by circling the camp and throwing firecrackers. Eventually, Bill gets separated from his friends; he has a limited knowledge of the land and finite supplies, so the others must decide whether to search for him or abandon him and save themselves. Diane, meanwhile, harbors a secret that could radically change the whole dynamic of the trip. Later, as exhaustion and fear lead to accidental injuries and deadly weather closes in, the students’ faith in God is tested in ways that rarely happen in everyday life. Author House (So Shall You Reap, 2011, etc.) injects his book with plenty of firsthand experience of the Appalachian Trail, bringing the loveliness of the locale to life (“Brilliant flowers of every color...nestled against the background like splatters of fluorescent paint”). He never shies from detailing his characters’ injuries (“Blood and trapped bowel fluid flowed out, soaking his clothes, resulting in a frozen mass against his skin”), though, or the primitive methods they use to treat them. The young people’s biting quips also feel true-to-life (“Reality was a bitch and in this case it had a name—Diane”). They frequently thank God for small miracles, and by the end, love helps redeem them during the horrifying resolution. Ultimately, House delivers an excellent message about building character through trial.
A visceral debut novel set against the splendor of a national treasure.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68058-038-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Limitless Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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