Mostly harmless fun with a large cast of zany characters and many chaotic situations.
A comical look at the world of Southern drag queen pageants.
Greenwell (Who the Hell is Rachel Wells?, 2013) opens his entertaining novel with its protagonist and narrator, Chester Davis, pleasantly sandwiched in bed between Zac Efron and Ryan Reynolds. Sadly for Chester, his fantasy sequence is the result of a concussion-induced hallucination. The author then takes us back approximately one year when the waiflike Chester escapes at the age of 21 from the trailer park where he lives with his abusive, homophobic grandmother outside of Birmingham, Alabama. (For most of the book, Chester goes by the name of his stage persona, Daphne DeLight, and feminine pronouns are used.) To Greenwell’s credit, there is a lot of action packed into that year as an eclectic group of supporters at Club Diva helps Daphne hone her craft and pursue her ambitious goal of winning the title of Miss Gay Drag Queen Alabama. As boyfriends Sam and Mike, the first two characters to offer Daphne a helping hand, discuss her developmental issues and extreme social awkwardness, Sam objects to Mike’s use of the term “retarded.” Mike responds: “Okay…challenged, slow, low IQ, autistic, whatever the term. She can barely even read, for God’s sakes.” Greenwell constructs Daphne as the proverbial babe in the woods who requires frequent explanations. This may illuminate readers unfamiliar with certain subcultures; however, this technique slows down the narrative as Daphne interprets language literally, and readers wait for yet another explanation from a frazzled mentor. For instance, at one point, Sam compares Daphne to a young Elizabeth Taylor, then feels compelled to add: “Well, thinner, blonder, and younger…you do have blue eyes. Not violet, but blue. Close enough.” The use of this transparent device seems like a convoluted, awkward way to convey basic information like the protagonist’s eye color. Although the book contains a few stereotypes, racial and otherwise, it reaches a satisfying conclusion when Greenwell reveals the cause of Daphne’s concussion as well as the root of her social and academic difficulties.
Mostly harmless fun with a large cast of zany characters and many chaotic situations.Pub Date: April 5, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-937627-24-9
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Chelsea Station Editions
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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