Jack and Andrew make a compelling duo powering this engrossing if despairing small-town series about oppression, freedom and...
A fiery tale of emerging diversity in backwoods Georgia and the challenges of countering religious intolerance.
Jack Miller is a handsome, popular high school football star in Sweet, Georgia. At 18, he’s been harboring a secret he can no longer hide, even if it threatens to deeply infuriate his large, ultraconservative family. As the son of a staunchly homophobic, conservative pastor, he’s just waiting for high school graduation and the call of freedom found in his attending a state university. Enter Andrew Collins, a thin, scruffy high school senior whose parents hurriedly relocated the family from Atlanta to Sweet, figuring a change of scenery (coupled with some extreme aversion tactics) would cleanse their son of his homosexual yearnings. Upon meeting, the boys’ instant attraction fuels a forbidden passion that blossoms into a clandestine relationship. After another schoolmate frustratingly comes out to Jack, a major misstep exposes Jack’s sexuality and incites the wrath of his father. Through it all, Jack remains protective of his flamboyant little brother, Billy, who he fears is also gay and may be left in the hands of his maniacal father upon Jack’s graduation. York paints the town of Sweet as a bastion of God-fearing homophobes ruled by a church and its dictatorial leader; only Jack’s mother seems to have a more lenient take on the subject, and the true nature of her relationship with her husband is only revealed at the story’s greatly unresolved conclusion. Certain sections are difficult to read and somewhat implausible: Minister Nate’s sheer, overblown hatred for Jack is matched only by Andrew’s bizarre acceptance of his family’s starvation torture. While the author effectively touches on child abuse issues alongside the struggles of young gay men coming to terms with their sexuality in the face of religious adversity, this first novel in York’s (In Or Out?, 2013, etc.) A Southern Thing series is blunted by an overly abrupt, violent conclusion and explicit sex scenes, which may limit the novel’s overall appeal and reading audience. Still, for those interested in the often forcibly suppressed vitality of young gay teens, York, a prolific Southern writer, delivers a hardscrabble yarn of forbidden love against all odds.
Jack and Andrew make a compelling duo powering this engrossing if despairing small-town series about oppression, freedom and equality.Pub Date: March 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1496133571
Page Count: 314
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
A treat for fans of The Evil Dead or Zombieland, complete with affordable solutions for better living.
A hardy band of big-box retail employees must dig down for their personal courage when ghosts begin stalking them through home furnishings.
You have to give it up for the wave of paranormal novels that have plagued the last decade in literature; at least they’ve made writers up their games when it comes to finding new settings in which to plot their scary moments. That’s the case with this clever little horror story from longtime pop-culture journalist Hendrix (Satan Loves You, 2012, etc.). Set inside a disturbingly familiar Scandinavian furniture superstore in Cleveland called Orsk, the book starts as a Palahniuk-tinged satire about the things we own—the novel is even wrapped in the form of a retail catalog complete with product illustrations. Our main protagonist is Amy, an aimless 24-year-old retail clerk. She and an elderly co-worker, Ruth Anne, are recruited by their anal-retentive boss, Basil (a closet geek), to investigate a series of strange breakages by walking the showroom floor overnight. They quickly uncover two other co-workers, Matt and Trinity, who have stayed in the store to film a reality show called Ghost Bomb in hopes of catching a spirit on tape. It’s cute and quite funny in a Scooby Doo kind of way until they run across Carl, a homeless squatter who's just trying to catch a break. Following an impromptu séance, Carl is possessed by an evil spirit and cuts his own throat. It turns out the Orsk store was built on the remains of a brutal prison called the Cuyahoga Panopticon, and its former warden, Josiah Worth, has returned from the dead to start up operations again. It sounds like an absurd setting for a haunted-house novel, but Hendrix makes it work to the story’s advantage, turning the psychological manipulations and scripted experiences that are inherent to the retail experience into a sinister fight for survival.
Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59474-526-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: July 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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