by John Whittier Treat ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 2022
This dour coming-of-age tale thoughtfully explores how abuse impacts many people’s lives.
A speech disorder shapes a boy’s life in countless, often violent ways in Treat’s novel.
Brian Moriarty, born in the mid-20th century, has a stuttering problem. He doesn’t respond well when people (including a teacher and later a female student) laugh at his disorder, so Brian, who lives in a ranch home in Tummus, Washington, avoids speaking as much as he can. As such, he mostly keeps to himself, even when at home with his parents and his younger brother Bruce, aka “Bam.” He’s also prone to grim contemplation, setting his own life “rules” that generally involve meting out punishment against people he deems guilty. (“It was the sheer act of violence, an end worthy in itself because it restored Brian to a fixed presence in the world, irrefutable and due him.”) He does, at the same time, suffer abuse, from his father, who uses his hands to make a point, and a priest who betrays Brian’s trust. As his tumultuous life continues, Brian gets a job translating French and Russian documents, which allows him to write—and not worry about speaking—these languages. He finds a steady relationship with Mary, a schoolmate who overcame stuttering but whose twin brother did not. The two plan a future and a potential family, though Brian’s violent tendencies don’t simply go away. Perhaps things will change once he makes it to Utopia, Alaska, a place he’s long dreamed about, where he can disappear into its forests and never have to say anything.
Treat effectively portrays Brian’s recurrent issues with stuttering and stammering; for example, Brian steers clear of particular letters he has trouble with, including the B in his own name (Alaska first catches his attention because it’s easily pronounceable). He personifies his stutter as the sharp-nosed Joker from a pack of playing cards, his “secret friend” who sporadically pops into the narrative to taunt Brian about his life. Brian is a complicated protagonist and decidedly hard to empathize with. Readers may suspect an unchecked mental condition informing his actions: “The sole thing competing with the ballpoint’s scratching noises were voices quarreling in his head. One was the Joker’s, and it was the loudest and most insistent.” Brian tries to validate such questionable choices as mercilessly beating more than one individual for minor slights. He abides by his own rules (making violence permissible) and finds common ground with a notable literary figure who, in their own story, kills someone. The rest of the cast is indelible, even from Brian’s third-person perspective. Mary is supportive and genuinely understands what Brian is going through, not unlike the school-assigned speech therapist who suggested the boy maintain a “stuttering diary” to focus on both bothersome words and associated feelings. Surprisingly, Bam is the only character who gets a dedicated chapter, which details the ways in which his older brother’s intermittent punches have affected him as an adult. The unpredictable ending may provide a chance for Brian, if he so chooses, to redeem himself.
This dour coming-of-age tale thoughtfully explores how abuse impacts many people’s lives.Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 9781938841866
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Jaded Ibis Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Alison Espach ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2024
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
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New York Times Bestseller
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by Lisa Scottoline ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 2025
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.
Scottoline’s latest links her great love of Italy with her long record of female-centered crime fiction.
Julia Pritzker has a presentiment that something terrible is around the corner, but she never imagines just how terrible: When her husband, Philadelphia attorney Mike Shallette, tries to protect her from a man who grabs her designer bag, he gets stabbed to death before her eyes. Julia’s grief becomes laced with guilt when she realizes that her daily horoscope had predicted a calamity she’s now convinced she could have prevented. The news from Italian attorney Massimiliano Lombardi that his late client has left her millions in cash and an estate worth nearly as much again doesn’t comfort her, but it does provide distraction—especially since she’s never heard of Emilia Rossi and has no idea why she’s been chosen as her heir. Since Julia, adopted at an early age by a couple who’ve been dead for years, wonders if Emilia might have been her biological grandmother, she travels to Chianti in hope of recovering some of Emilia’s DNA. Unfortunately, caretakers Anna Mattia Vesta and Piero Fano have burned all of Emilia’s clothing and personal items on her orders, so there’s nothing left to test. Growing convinced that the stars are directing her and that her history is rooted in Emilia’s decrepit house, Julia turns down repeated offers for the property and resolves to secure evidence confirming the relationship between Emilia and her. Now all she has to do is protect herself from the shadowy figures tracking and following her and recover from a series of vivid, hallucinatory nightmares that seem to be the cost of claiming her heritage.
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781538769997
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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