Despite its signature sweetness, this latest chronicle of Hetty’s adventures remains more soap operatic than genuinely...
In this fifth installment of a series, a radio star becomes beleaguered by attempts to undermine her marriage.
Now married to Morgan Morganthal, Hetty divides her time between taking care of her young daughter, Pippa, and hosting her own radio show. Katrinka Wallace, also married and resentful as ever that Morgan chose Hetty over her, continues to roguishly find ways to sabotage their otherwise blissfully happy union. Hetty invites Katrinka to be a guest on her show, and she predictably uses the opportunity to publicly mortify her. Later, Hetty turns to her for advice regarding another upcoming guest, and Katrinka feeds her destructive counsel. Meanwhile, Katrinka comes under public scrutiny for animal testing done by the beauty company she fronts, and tries to convince Hetty to bury evidence of wrongdoing. Ignatz Gorman, who once conspired with Katrinka to kidnap Morgan in a complex scheme to win his affection, returns to the scene. Gorman convinces Morgan’s parents to hire him as their chauffeur, introducing himself under an assumed name. Hetty recognizes him, but inexplicably tries to convince Morgan, despite the obvious danger he poses, that Gorman has turned over a new leaf. Katrinka comes into possession of a letter written by Max, Morgan’s father, confessing to wrongdoings long ago committed but kept secret. She ponders the possibility of using it to blackmail Morgan. West (Hetty or Not, 2015, etc.) diligently provides context whenever necessary, ensuring that this novel can be understood independent of its predecessors. But the plot is so thoroughly moored in that antecedent history, it’s unlikely readers’ interest will be gripped without perusing the prequels. The author’s latest has all the tender charm of the others as well as her lovely illustrations throughout. But the striking antagonism between Hetty and Katrinka seems contrived. Katrinka is monochromatically depicted as a cartoon villain, and Hetty as irresponsibly gullible. In addition, it simply makes no sense at this juncture that Hetty and Morgan are still so haunted by doubts about the strength of their bond. Hetty continues to mature, but the story seems stuck in arrested adolescence.
Despite its signature sweetness, this latest chronicle of Hetty’s adventures remains more soap operatic than genuinely dramatic.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 218
Publisher: Clean Kind World Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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