A fast-paced and fun throwback to the heyday of the radio era.
In Wainland’s (Iron Butterfly, 2015) nostalgic thriller set in 1998, two radio disc jockeys find success in their professional lives, but their personal lives are a different story.
At Miami radio station WORR (“Only Rock and Roll”), DJ Jonny Rock (Jonathan Roeker, off-air) has been cheating on his wife for years—lately, with a cute, redheaded intern whose ambition he exploits for personal gain. Dana Drew (Dana Hill, off-air), one of a handful of female DJs in a male-dominated industry, is respected for her talent, but she’s also used as eye candy for promotional events, which she hates. Meanwhile, Larry Carter, Dana’s creepy superfan, has been losing weight, hoping to impress the radio host when he finally meets her in person. After surviving a traumatic childhood, Cody Blue Smith is finally getting his big break as a musician, but his newfound success strains his relationship with his band mates and his girlfriend. The radio station brings all these characters together and then tears them apart. The overarching story captures the zeitgeist of the late 1990s, as the DJs, rock stars, and listeners reveal the glamorous, complicated, and dangerous sides of the music industry in alternating narratives. Wainland’s characters are flawed, funny, and self-aware, brought to life with sharp prose: “he was sporting the hair style an angry child with a yellow crayon would give a stick figure.” The historical details also ring true: the tastemakers of the late ’90s were still people, not algorithms. The best DJs had loyal fans, and even the rude and raunchy ones had hate-listeners. The on-air banter on WORR is as cringe-worthy and familiar as the alternative rock bands on the playlist. Although it’s no surprise when Dana and Jonny receive unwanted attention, it’s exciting to watch what happens when newer technology, such as caller ID and search engines, is used against them.
A fast-paced and fun throwback to the heyday of the radio era.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9978588-1-5
Page Count: 417
Publisher: Twin Tree Press
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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