A sleek and subversive thriller that should appeal to readers who enjoy edgy fiction.
A chance encounter sends two strangers on a wild ride through the streets of Los Angeles, where the stakes are high.
In this thriller, Friday evening means a night of hard partying for Brooke. The spoiled trust fund daughter of actor Danny Ryan, she spends her days lost in a haze of absinthe and coke, hopping from one hot Los Angeles area night spot to the next and documenting her exploits on social media. She ends up at the Doheny Room, where she parties with her friend Ashley and Ashley’s boyfriend, Jared. While Brooke enjoys her evening, an actor named Chase hooks up with Melissa, a young waitress. A former bartender plucked from obscurity, Chase gained fame starring on a teen TV drama called All That Glitters. He believes Melissa may be “The One,” until he murders her. A serial killer, Chase targets the bartenders, servers, and waitresses of Hollywood’s trendiest restaurants and nightclubs. The next night, Brooke and Chase meet by chance when they share the same Uber. After Brooke casually invites Chase to join her, they embark on an odyssey that begins with the search for drugs and ends with an unforgettable house party. The latest novel from Adam (Keep Santa Monica Clean, 2016, etc.) is a twisty and transgressive tale of two jaded and troubled strangers discovering an unlikely connection. On the surface, Brooke appears to be a shallow party girl whose only concern is how she appears on Snapchat or Instagram. But the author subtly adds an undercurrent of vulnerability and emptiness to her glamorous facade, particularly in her references to the “stranger wearing my face.” Chase is a multifaceted and compelling protagonist and villain. A successful actor and aspiring screenwriter, he chooses his victims based on his past as a bartender and nostalgia for the lifestyle. Adam’s sharp and economical prose is punctuated by moments of acerbic humor. When asked by his psychiatrist if he thinks he is insane, Chase replies, “No, I’m a television actor.”
A sleek and subversive thriller that should appeal to readers who enjoy edgy fiction.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-64606-948-4
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Post-Entropy
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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