An often vivid family saga, centered on a satisfyingly complex matriarch.
A historical novel inspired by tales of the Great Migration.
This fictionalized account of hardship, escape, and closure is based on the stories told by Loucindia, the great-grandmother of coauthors Melody Fowler and Arric Fowler. Drunetta grows up in an unnamed Southern town; she describes her people as a combination of “down home farm stock and uptown education.” She lost her first and only love, Xavier, because her parents felt she was too young at 16 to be dating. At the age of 21, Drunetta later married Abraham Brown in 1935 and started a family. Abraham, however, was unreliable; he drank at the local, illegal bar and ran around with other women. When Drunetta discovered these affairs in 1957, she helped the police arrest Abraham for a violent act he committed, and she took a train to New York City with her youngest three children; two others were already grown. Up north, she struggled to raise her family and came to rely on two very different friends: church lady Sister Rose and bar singer Miss Rayceen. The women, whose backstories readers learn, became emotionally and legally bound to Drunetta and her family, which grew as her brothers joined her in the city. Much of the story is from Drunetta’s perspective; readers will find it enjoyable to see the world through her eyes, and she’s surrounded by compelling characters as she experiences intriguing plot developments. However, Drunetta’s narrative voice is almost identical to those of some of the other narrators, which include three of her daughters. Most of the narration is set in the late 1950s and early ’60s, but the various stories encompass events further in the past; in addition, the story checks in briefly with the Browns in 1971, 1981, 1986, 2009, and 2011. At the end of her life, Drunetta makes an intriguing admission that she says provided her with the healing experience she needed—one that’s referenced in the book’s title.
An often vivid family saga, centered on a satisfyingly complex matriarch.Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2022
ISBN: 9781738647026
Page Count: 268
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.
The true story of Axis diplomats detained in the U.S. at the start of World War II is transformed into a dazzling historical novel set at a sumptuous West Virginia hotel.
Bestselling YA fantasy author Stiefvater’s adult debut introduces a writer whose prodigious imagination and distinctive prose style have combined to create a novel that will remind readers of why they fell in love with reading in the first place. At its center is the captivating June Hudson, an erstwhile Appalachian orphan who was taken in by the wealthy Gilfoyle family, owners of the Avallon Hotel & Spa, a high-society retreat built over underground mineral springs. At his death, the patriarch bequeathed ownership to his playboy son, Edgar, but made June the general manager, as she had spent her life learning the business—and also shared with Gilfoyle Sr. a rare gift relating to the “sweetwater” springs, a fantastical element of this otherwise realistic novel. Aside from the magical waters and a few other fanciful details, Stiefvater’s fictional world is based on extensive research into high-end hotels of the period, creating a version of luxury so appealing that readers will wish they could check into the Avallon and stay on indefinitely. In fact, the novel revolves around the true meaning of luxury. To June, it has nothing to do with wealth; it is more connected to joy, and to the book’s title: “June had long ago discovered that most people were bad listeners; they thought listening was synonymous with hearing. But the spoken was only half a conversation. True needs, wants, fears, and hopes hid not in the words that were said, but in the ones that weren’t, and all these formed the core of luxury.” Also brilliantly managed is the rest of the ensemble cast: sexy FBI agents; June’s inimitable staff; the delegations of Japanese, Germans, and Italians detained at the hotel, some quite nasty, but among them a strange, special, totally silent child. And on top of all this, a delicious love story!
This luxurious novel is set to take the world by storm.Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9780593655504
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
