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Unholy Bonds

Name: Unholy Bonds
Author: Leslie Lynch
ISBN: 978-1-941728-01-7

A NOVEL OF SUSPENSE AND HEALING

From the The Appalachian Foothills Series series , Vol. 1

by Leslie Lynch edited by Pam Berehulke ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 24, 2014

An often unsettling but ultimately profound meditation on the depth of psychological suffering after a sexual assault and...

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A woman wrestles with the haunting specter of her rape in this sequel.

Lannis Parker, a successful pilot, was brutally raped by Robert Davis, a sadistic repeat offender. The sting of the trauma drives her to seek refuge in the oblivion of alcohol and to conceal the attack from even her closest friends and family out of shame. With the encouragement of her fiance, Ben Martin, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent, she presses charges against Davis and has him arrested. Davis decides to defend himself in court and uses the process to intimidate Lannis; the account the author provides of Davis’ cross-examination of Lannis is chillingly cringe-inducing. Despite Lannis’ significant personal progress—she joins Alcoholics Anonymous and quits drinking and works hard to open up about her suppressed feelings of helplessness and self-contempt—she still struggles to move past the emotional fallout of the assault. She surprisingly decides that the only route to peace is to be found through the humanization of her attacker—she needs to learn to understand, forgive, and even love the monster who gleefully robbed her of her serenity: “There’s nothing new to talk about. I’m doing everything I’m supposed to. Journaling, the little exercises she gave me, taking care of myself. But I sense what needs doing now is more spiritual, like God is asking me to go somewhere else with the experience.” This is the second installment in the Appalachian Foothill series but is intended to be a stand-alone volume, readable independent of its predecessor. Lynch (Christmas Grace, 2015) deftly unpacks the heavy emotional freight rape victims shoulder, although in some scenes she makes her point too heavy-handedly. For example, Lannis’ mother reacts incredulously to her daughter’s disclosure that she was raped, a reflex that strikes a false note. In addition, the story swarms with subplots, which prove distracting. The author’s depiction of Davis’ psychological disfigurement is as unflinching as it is disturbing, though the more monstrously he is drawn, the less plausible Lannis’ attempts to love him seem. The book’s central virtue is the subtle parsing of the deepest wound rape inflicts—the insidious transformation of the victim into an accomplice in her own violation and the bottomless ignominy that generates. Lynch’s second novel is worth reading for that alone.

An often unsettling but ultimately profound meditation on the depth of psychological suffering after a sexual assault and the potential for healing.

Pub Date: June 24, 2014

ISBN: 978-1-941728-01-7

Page Count: 318

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.