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THE WOLVES WITHIN OUR WALLS

An absorbing story of the end of civilization relayed through a handful of tortured characters.

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Life in a post-apocalyptic community may be just as harrowing as that in the devastated outside world in Flinders’ debut dystopian novel.

In April 2021, Zoe Wilkes works at a Parker’s Island, Maryland, restaurant with her best friend and roommate, Ben. They’re sleeping off hangovers when Ben’s older sister, Bex, calls them on their landline. The power has gone out nearly everywhere and cellphones don’t work, so the two drive to Bex’s house in Blair Heights, where she has a generator. A heavy traffic jam, however, prevents them from getting there; they eventually get separated, and Zoe opts to return home. After she endures a mugging by a group of teenagers, she ends up in an “off-the-grid housing community” built by former environmental lobbyist Jacob Malin. His friend Miles Kirby, who used to work on cybersecurity for the government, long feared that terrorists could hack infrastructure systems—which is apparently what happened in “the attack.” Life inside the walls is initially good, with more than 100 people working together to maintain a stockpile of food and other necessities; Zoe and Miles develop a relationship and live together. But soon, the mood within the community darkens, including that of Miles. Then Zoe stumbles upon information about what’s really happening during mysterious “supply runs”—a revelation that upends her life all over again. Flinders energetically details the atmosphere of the uncertain post-blackout world; for example, Zoe is terrified by an unseen threat in the darkness when her car runs out of gas and later feels comfort when gripping the switchblade that Ben gives her. As a result, it’s somewhat disappointing when the story shifts to the smaller community setting. Nevertheless, this choice simplifies the plot, focusing on how internal conflicts and secrets contribute to societal instability; as Zoe aptly puts it, “the world shrank…for all of us.” Flinders’ descriptions sparkle, as when a mass of lumber and parts is called “an unorganized Home Depot with no walls” and when “wilted and dying flowers” are sitting in a vase after someone’s death.

An absorbing story of the end of civilization relayed through a handful of tortured characters.

Pub Date: July 11, 2017

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 203

Publisher: Pruple Pill Publshing

Review Posted Online: July 21, 2017

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IT ENDS WITH US

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...

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Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.

At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.

Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.

Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016

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THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet...

Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt.

Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. In the opening scene, Liza Sorenson, daughter No. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sister’s wedding. “There’s four of you?” he asked. “What’s that like?” Her retort: “It’s a vast hormonal hellscape. A marathon of instability and hair products.” Thus begins a story bristling with a particular kind of female intel. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she “made sure she left her mark throughout his house—soy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets.” Turbulent Wendy is the novel’s best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. The parents—Marilyn, all pluck and busy optimism, and David, a genial family doctor—strike their offspring as impossibly happy. Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents’ early lean times with chapters about their daughters’ wobbly forays into adulthood. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. Meanwhile, youngest daughter Grace perpetrates a whopper, and “every day the lie was growing like mold, furring her judgment.” The writing here is silky, if occasionally overwrought. Still, the deft touches—a neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstone—delight. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom.

Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.

Pub Date: June 25, 2019

ISBN: 978-0-385-54425-2

Page Count: 544

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: March 3, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019

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