An exhilarating, sorrowful, and terrifying descent into retribution and possible madness.
A nurse, seeking revenge against those who have wronged her, may be slowly losing her mind in this psychological thriller.
Three years ago, Melissa Sweet’s devastating mistake at a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital cost a life and ended her nursing career. Now, she’s back in North Carolina, where her mother and her brother, Noah, live. Though she blames herself for the death that relentlessly haunts her, Melissa struggles to move on. She’s on the right track, in the arms of a softhearted, charming fiance and with a new job at a methadone clinic lined up. Then tragedy strikes, as masked men suddenly introduce violence into her world. In the days that follow, she’s an understandable wreck, likely suffering from PTSD, until Melissa happens upon one assailant’s identity. This ignites her thirst for vengeance, as she hunts down this man and his cohorts, armed with resilience and whatever weapon she can find. But as she metes out her punishment, Melissa may be cracking up—she’s hearing voices and losing her sense of reality. Her increasingly ruthless search, meanwhile, pushes her to a truth she surely doesn’t want to know. Schattel’s novel, which began as a screenplay, runs full tilt. The story moves from scene to scene with glorious transitions, from crashing thunder to voices that wake up a blacked-out Melissa. A convincing backstory (which includes Noah’s history of schizophrenia) along with stunning descriptive passages elevate this tale of apparent mental collapse. For example, the author equates Melissa’s unstable state to being underwater—“everything in dreamy half-motion and submerged by cold rolling waves of shock.” Some readers will guess later plot turns, though that doesn’t dampen their impact on this unforgettably grim tale. Notwithstanding brutal acts on display, the story isn’t as violent as some readers will anticipate. Melissa remains a sympathetic hero whose sincerity, regardless of what unfolds, never dissipates.
An exhilarating, sorrowful, and terrifying descent into retribution and possible madness.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68510-015-5
Page Count: 232
Publisher: JournalStone
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The plot is absurd, of course, but the book is a definitive pleasure. Prepare to be absorbed—and in more ways than one.
Another Brown (Inferno, 2013, etc.) blockbuster, blending arcana, religion, and skulduggery—sound familiar?—with the latest headlines.
You just have to know that when the first character you meet in a Brown novel is a debonair tech mogul and the second a bony-fingered old bishop, you’ll end up with a clash of ideologies and worldviews. So it is. Edmond Kirsch, once a student of longtime Brown hero Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist–turned–action hero, has assembled a massive crowd, virtual and real, in Bilbao to announce he’s discovered something that’s destined to kill off religion and replace it with science. It would be ungallant to reveal just what the discovery is, but suffice it to say that the religious leaders of the world are in a tizzy about it, whereupon one shadowy Knights of Malta type takes it upon himself to put a bloody end to Kirsch’s nascent heresy. Ah, but what if Kirsch had concocted an AI agent so powerful that his own death was just an inconvenience? What if it was time for not just schism, but singularity? Digging into the mystery, Langdon finds a couple of new pals, one of them that computer avatar, and a whole pack of new enemies, who, not content just to keep Kirsch’s discovery under wraps, also frown on the thought that a great many people in the modern world, including some extremely prominent Spaniards, find fascism and Falangism passé and think the reigning liberal pope is a pretty good guy. Yes, Franco is still dead, as are Christopher Hitchens, Julian Jaynes, Jacques Derrida, William Blake, and other cultural figures Brown enlists along the way—and that’s just the beginning of the body count. The old ham-fisted Brown is here in full glory (“In that instant, Langdon realized that perhaps there was a macabre silver lining to Edmond’s horrific murder”; “The vivacious, strong-minded beauty had turned Julián’s world upside down”)—but, for all his defects as a stylist, it can’t be denied that he knows how to spin a yarn, and most satisfyingly.
The plot is absurd, of course, but the book is a definitive pleasure. Prepare to be absorbed—and in more ways than one.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-51423-1
Page Count: 461
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
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