A charming work about two damaged, intertwined families.
Piano (Hostile Takeover, 2016) tells the story of two families dealing with the fallout of a tragic death in this novel.
The sudden death of Stu Hammand in a car accident at age 18 has a tremendous impact on the lives of those around him. UCLA freshman Sunny Riddick is heartbroken, and she does little other than sit in her room mourning the loss of the boy she hoped to marry. Meanwhile, Stu’s parents’ marriage falls apart, adding to his father Ted’s near-unbearable heartache: “Ted had read that about 20 percent of parents who lose a child get divorced....It made him sad to think he was on the wrong side of that statistic.” The Hammands aren’t the only ones on the rocks: Sunny’s parents, Durk and Aleen Riddick, have also separated, creating greater distance between Sunny and Aleen even as they both mourn Stu’s loss. Amid all this upheaval, a new family of sorts forms, as Aleen, Sunny, and Ted begin meeting every Sunday to watch Stu’s favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers, play on television. What begins as a way to honor Stu soon turns into a method for them all to move past loss. The more time that they spend together, the more that they realize that the dissolutions of both marriages are more complicated than they thought—and that the two couples have more in common than the relationship between their children. Piano writes in conversational prose that makes no effort to blunt or hide the emotions of her characters: “Sunny’s words from that night were seared into her brain. ‘You killed him. You two killed Stu.’ ” The story is well-paced, and Piano handles the shifting perspectives of the three main characters in a way that slowly and satisfyingly spools out each complicating detail. Sometimes the dramatic situations strain credulity—the work is pure melodrama at its heart—but the author manages to keep the reader invested with sheer curiosity about what happens next. Fans of stories of good, earnest people entangled in messy relationships will find plenty here to enjoy.
A charming work about two damaged, intertwined families.Pub Date: Aug. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943006-20-5
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Spark Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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