Despite the book's shortcomings, the author redeems herself in the end, displaying undeniable growth and sharpened literary...
Durrant’s sophomore effort (Under Your Skin, 2014) tackles the complicated, dark, and disturbing mind of a manipulative and often abusive man who may—or may not—be dead.
Lizzie, a somewhat ordinary but sweet and unassuming British school librarian, has scraped up the courage to visit the lonely stretch of highway where her handsome husband, Zach, died in a horrific one-car accident. But on Valentine’s Day 2013—one year to the day since he died—when she makes that pilgrimage to leave flowers at the site, Lizzie finds someone’s beaten her there: a bouquet addressed "For Zach" and signed “Xenia” has already been left. Distraught, she decides to drive up to Zach's vacation cabin, where she expects to find a letter she had mailed there just before he died, telling him that she wanted a divorce. "Thank God he died before he read it," she thinks, planning to burn it. But when she gets to the cabin, she finds the letter scrunched up at the bottom of the garbage can. Convinced that Zach may still be alive and with a growing sense that someone is watching her, Lizzie starts digging into her controlling husband’s past and finds discrepancies that make her question everything she has ever known about the man she married, including his true identity. Meanwhile, intermittent chapters are narrated by Zach; they're dated over several years, leading up to the day of his accident. Durrant’s skill in creating a moody, menacing atmosphere shines in this tale, although likable, compliant Lizzie often comes across as both much too quick to trust people and way too slow to recognize when things are going sideways. Her low-key response in handling the very obviously disturbed teen who bullies her way into her life fits the character but also makes her seem like a bit of a dimwit rather than simply a milquetoast.
Despite the book's shortcomings, the author redeems herself in the end, displaying undeniable growth and sharpened literary skills since her first novel.Pub Date: May 26, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1632-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Emily Bestler/Atria
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional.
Some thrillers produce shivers, others trigger goose bumps; Cutter’s graphic offering will have readers jumping out of their skins.
Scoutmaster Dr. Tim Riggs takes his troop for their annual camping trip to Falstaff Island, an uninhabited area not far from their home on Prince Edward Island. The five 14-year-old boys who comprise Troop 52 are a diverse group: popular school jock, Kent, whose father is the chief of police; best friends Ephraim and Max, one the son of a petty thief who’s serving time in prison and the other the son of the coroner who also serves as the local taxidermist; Shelley, an odd loner with a creepy proclivity for animal torture and touching girls’ hair; and Newton, the overweight nerdy kid who’s the butt of the other boys’ jokes. When a skeletal, voracious, obviously ill man shows up on the island the first night of their trip, Tim’s efforts to assist him unleash a series of events which the author describes in gruesome, deliciously gory detail. Tom Padgett is the subject of a scientific test gone horribly wrong, or so it seems, and soon, the Scouts face a nightmare that worms its way into the group and wreaks every kind of havoc imaginable. With no way to leave the island (the boat Tom arrived on is disabled, and the troop was dropped off by a different boat), the boys fight to survive. Cutter’s narrative of unfolding events on the island is supplemented with well-placed interviews, pages from diaries, and magazine and newspaper articles, which provide answers to the reader in bits and pieces—but perhaps more importantly, it also delivers much-needed respites from the intense narrative as the boys battle for their lives on the island. Cutter (who created this work under a pseudonym) packs a powerful punch by plunging readers into gut-wrenching, explicit imagery that’s not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
Readers may wish to tackle this heart-pounding novel in highly populated, well-lit areas—snacks optional.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1771-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
The jaws are those of a shark which makes quick work of a pretty young woman on the Long Island shore (Amity) where the disaster is kept quiet in the (financial) interest of the town's summer rentals. This is no longer possible after the next victim—a youngster—and police chief Brody is wrongly blamed for not closing the beaches sconer. He has other troubles — namely a restless young wife who remembers better days playing country club tennis and she is not immune to a visiting ichthyologist, the only one fascinated by the local shark. The finale entails some ugly, lashing action against the big one that's been getting away and all of it is designed to jolt that maneating masculine readership who probably won't notice that it ""should of"" been better written.
Pub Date: Jan. 18, 1973
ISBN: 978-0-345-54414-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1973
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