by Rachel Cochran ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 13, 2023
A thoughtful novel with a hint of mystery. Its still waters run deep.
When a hurricane hits Parson, Texas, in 1970, bartender Louisa Ward’s past and present collide as she seeks to build a future.
Lou doesn’t want to leave the town where she grew up, but her aunt and niece have already relocated to San Antonio, and her partner, Heather—who’s also her brother's widow—is getting ready to pull up stakes and join them. Lou’s also still reeling from the sudden, violent death of Miss Kate, the owner of an old plantation just outside of town. When Miss Kate’s daughter, Joanna, returns, planning to sell the plantation, Lou agrees to help clean up the house. They had been childhood friends but had a falling-out in high school and haven’t been in touch since. Joanna’s presence draws Lou back into memories of the past—of their complicated friendship; of her brother, Robby, who died in Vietnam; of Joanna’s sister, Cass, who died in a mysterious accident. But slowly she begins to realize that the memories she’s held as “true” are actually missing vital pieces, most notably Miss Kate’s involvement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. There’s also a mysterious group of women, led by the charismatic Peg, who live outside of town and have their money bound up in Miss Kate’s house. Despite the inherent drama, this novel is a slow burn. The pacing works wonderfully, though, because just when we think we know something—about Lou’s past, about Peg’s group, about Joanna’s motives—Cochran spins in a new perspective or memory or piece of information that completely alters our understanding of plot, characters, even genre. The constant reversal of certainty is masterfully executed and adds tension in unexpected ways. Cochran also uses the time period to draw a deeper reflection on belonging—and to emphasize the danger for those who will always be “outsiders.”
A thoughtful novel with a hint of mystery. Its still waters run deep.Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063284128
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Grady Hendrix ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 2025
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.
Hung out to dry by the elders who betrayed them, a squad of pregnant teens fights back with old magic.
Hendrix has a flair for applying inventive hooks to horror, and this book has a good one, chock-full with shades of V.C. Andrews, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Foxfire, to name a few. Our narrator, Neva Craven, is 15 and pregnant, a fate worse than death in the American South circa 1970. She’s taken by force to Wellwood House in Florida, a secretive home for unwed mothers where she’s given the name Fern. She’ll have the baby secretly and give it up for adoption, whether she likes it or not. Under the thumb of the house’s cruel mistress, Miss Wellwood, and complicit Dr. Vincent, Neva forges cautious alliance with her fellow captives—a new friend, Zinnia; budding revolutionary Rose; and young Holly, raped and impregnated by the very family minister slated to adopt her child. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious bookmobile and its librarian, Miss Parcae, who gives the girls an actual book of spells titled How To Be a Groovy Witch. There’s glee in seeing the powerless granted some well-deserved payback, but Hendrix never forgets his sweet spot, lacing the story with body horror and unspeakable cruelties that threaten to overwhelm every little victory. In truth, it’s not the paranormal elements that make this blast from the past so terrifying—although one character evolves into a suitably scary antagonist near the end—but the unspeakable, everyday atrocities leveled at children like these. As the girls lose their babies one by one, they soon devote themselves to secreting away Holly and her child. They get some help late in the game but for the most part they’re on their own, trapped between forces of darkness and society’s merciless judgement.
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593548981
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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