by Jonathan Epps ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2019
A profound, harrowing examination of violence in the 21st century.
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In this debut novel, a man becomes obsessed with tracking the online identity of a person who may be behind a string of shootings.
When 50-something Jack Warner hears of a tragic shooting at a local Missouri high school, he’s angry. Though the transportation logistics analyst has no kids, the violent event triggers his outrage over such things as corrupt businesses and “soulless” news broadcasts. But he’s even more distraught by what he sees on his 23-year-old nephew Luke’s computer screen. Luke is using EasyChat, the same online group the high school shooters utilized, and it seems the individuals in a particular chat room are championing the boys’ lethal actions. Jack asks his nephew for the chat room’s password and zeroes in on the moderator, who goes by the handle Fonzie. Jack tracks Fonzie on other sites, like Instagram, and is gradually fascinated by the grisly, deviant content of these online discussions. Then there’s a series of shootings, including at a nearby mall, and Jack believes he may already have his eyes on the person responsible. His obsession grows, as he gains illicit access to police records so he can follow the official investigation and purchases a weapon of his own—not a handgun, but a sniper rifle. Jack is on morally shaky ground since he’s not quite sure how connected Luke is to the group. But he may be in physical danger as well, as it’s easy for any of the chat-room regulars, especially the shooter, to pinpoint his IP and home addresses. Epps’ grim novel is an incisive look at people’s responses to violent tragedies. Jack, for one, toys with the notion of vigilantism, which fortunately the story never glorifies. In fact, in an early scene, Jack’s encounter with “thuggish-looking fellas” outside a convenience store fails to take the perilous turn he apparently anticipates. While Jack’s behavior borders on paranoia over gun-toting teens, it’s clear he’s also attempting to understand those disturbed enough to resort to mass murder. That’s why he initially frequents the chat room and makes efforts to reach Luke, whose angst is palpable. At the same time, the author deftly contrasts Jack with Kathy Cray, a teacher he worked with when he was in the same profession. Back then, her method of handling a troubled male student was to treat him as a problem to be discarded rather than getting the boy help. Epps smartly incorporates social media into the plot and criticizes the users more than the sites themselves. For example, Jack’s online presence ultimately strains his relationship with his girlfriend, Penny Grierson, which he rightly blames on his obsession. His chronic despondency carries over to the arresting but bleak prose. In one instance, he stands on his porch listening to “the sounds of the night” before imagining “people out there in the darker shadows, some dragging their feet like the walking dead, some scanning like predators, some cowering like victims.” Though most readers will predict a plot turn in the final act, two other twists are genuinely shocking and only further the narrative’s somberness.
A profound, harrowing examination of violence in the 21st century.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-578-61739-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Mess Hall Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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