While it misses some opportunities for greater complexity, this religious thriller ventures to unexpected places.
A morality-themed novel focuses on a young girl’s harrowing experiences.
Cillo (Merry Friggin’ Christmas, 2018, etc.) presents 17-year-old Eulalia “Lali” Russo. To say that Lali is a devout Roman Catholic would be an understatement. Lali, in addition to attending a Catholic school, goes to weekday Mass, prays for people outside the local abortion clinic, and helps out at a home for unwed mothers. She even states quite firmly that she would be willing to die for her beliefs. Of course, she doesn’t often get to prove such a conviction, living as she does in the tranquil town of Santa Ines, California. Should trouble erupt, she feels protected by her policeman father, Robert. He is a stern man who is capable of just about anything but cooking a decent breakfast. Unfortunately, drugs are altering the face of Santa Ines. Due to events that begin with Lali’s acquaintance with a small-time dealer, her life quickly spirals into chaos. Lali is raped, beaten, and thrown off a cliff. To make matters more complicated, while Lali is in a coma, it is discovered that she is pregnant. Did Lali attempt suicide because she was sleeping around? Is there more to this sweet girl than meets the eye? While other characters try to figure things out, readers already know what happened. The crime is described as it occurs. Nevertheless, Cillo smoothly introduces new, intriguing events. Although Lali may not contain any further depth beyond that of a young angel (she even dreams about Jesus), the lives of those around her keep evolving in captivating ways. There is even room for humor. When a criminal with a ninth grade education (who doesn’t ever wear a seat belt) references Shakespeare, his underling is comically dumbfounded. Overall, the main events may sometimes lack suspense yet other aspects of the story still manage to skillfully bend in surprising directions.
While it misses some opportunities for greater complexity, this religious thriller ventures to unexpected places.Pub Date: March 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-942590-28-6
Page Count: 412
Publisher: Infornuity Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As she seeks to repair bridges, Cat awakens anger and treachery in the hearts of those she once betrayed. Making amends,...
Before sobriety, Catherine "Cat" Coombs had it all: fun friends, an exciting job, and a love affair with alcohol. Until she blacked out one more time and woke up in a stranger’s bed.
By that time, “having it all” had already devolved into hiding the extent of her drinking from everyone she cared about, including herself. Luckily for Cat, the stranger turned out to be Jason Halliwell, a rather delicious television director marking three years, eight months, and 69 days of sobriety. Inspired by Jason—or rather, inspired by the prospect of a romantic relationship with this handsome hunk—Cat joins him at AA meetings and embarks on her own journey toward clarity. But sobriety won’t work until Cat commits to it for herself. Their relationship is tumultuous, as Cat falls off the wagon time and again. Along the way, Cat discovers that the cold man she grew up endlessly failing to please was not her real father, and with his death, her mother’s secret escapes. So she heads for Nantucket, where she meets her drunken dad and two half sisters—one boisterously welcoming and the other sulkily suspicious—and where she commits an unforgivable blunder. Years later, despairing of her persistent relapses, Jason has left Cat, taking their daughter with him. Finally, painfully, Cat gets clean. Green (Saving Grace, 2014, etc.) handles grim issues with a sure hand, balancing light romance with tense family drama. She unflinchingly documents Cat’s humiliations under the influence and then traces her commitment to sobriety. Simultaneously masking the motivations of those surrounding our heroine, Green sets up a surprising karmic lesson.
As she seeks to repair bridges, Cat awakens anger and treachery in the hearts of those she once betrayed. Making amends, like addiction, may endanger her future.Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-04734-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: April 1, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Simmering with tension, this tragic, albeit imperfect, mystery is sure to keep readers inching off their seats.
A forsaken family bound by grief still struggles to pick up the pieces 12 years after their mother’s death.
When famous author Gil Coleman sees “his dead wife standing on the pavement below” from a bookshop window in a small town on the southern coast of England, he follows her, but to no avail, and takes a near-fatal fall off a walkway on the beach. As soon as they hear word of his accident, Gil’s grown daughters, Nan and Flora, drop everything and return to their seaside family home in Spanish Green. Though her father’s health is dire, Flora, Gil’s youngest, can’t help but be consumed by the thought that her mother, Ingrid—who went missing and presumably drowned (though the body was never found) off the coast more than a decade ago—could be alive, wandering the streets of their town. British author Fuller’s second novel (Our Endless Numbered Days, 2015) is nimbly told from two alternating perspectives: Flora’s, as she re-evaluates the loose ends of her mother’s ambiguous disappearance; and Ingrid’s, through a series of candid letters she writes, but never delivers, to Gil in the month leading up to the day she vanishes. The most compelling parts of this novel unfold in Ingrid’s letters, in which she chronicles the dissolution of her 16-year marriage to Gil, beginning when they first meet in 1976: Gil is her alluring professor, they engage in a furtive love affair, and fall into a hasty union precipitated by an unexpected pregnancy; Gil gains literary fame, and Ingrid is left to tackle motherhood alone (including two miscarriages); and it all bitterly culminates in the discovery of an irrevocable betrayal. Unbeknownst to Gil and his daughters, these letters remain hidden, neglected, in troves of books throughout the house, and the truth lies seductively within reach. Fuller’s tale is eloquent, harrowing, and raw, but it’s often muddled by tired, cloying dialogue. And whereas Ingrid shines as a protagonist at large, the supporting characters are lacking in depth.
Simmering with tension, this tragic, albeit imperfect, mystery is sure to keep readers inching off their seats.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-941040-51-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
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