An intense psychological drama underpins this uneven novel.
Holmes (Sweet Memories, 2013) delves into the world of postpartum psychosis in this novel, which isn’t what it might first appear to be.
Diane seems like a happy new mother who dreads returning to her corporate job and wants only to dote on Grace, her daughter. But from the start, it’s clear that something is very wrong. Where is Brian, her devoted husband? Why does everyone seem to want to ignore Grace? The narrative jumps back and forth from Diane’s present-day perspective to the perspective of Brian when Diane was pregnant. Diane was reluctant to have a child due in part to the fact that, when she was a child, her own mother suffered from postpartum psychosis and killed herself and Diane’s baby brother. Though she and Brian have a good marriage, her pregnancy and a job promotion for Brian introduce strife to their harmonious union. It’s clear from Diane’s present-day narration that she is unwell and suffering from delusions, but readers will need to make it to the end of this twisted tale to find out the full extent of Diane’s delusions. Reminiscent of The Twilight Zone, this novel has a feeling that will unsettle readers from the first page. While the jumps back and forth in time help to move things along, some of the chapters from the past perspective feel repetitive as they describe the relationship between Diane and Brian as well as the friction between them. Clichés abound—“He could argue with her until he was blue in the face”—and at times, the narrative is heavy-handed and relies too much on telling rather than gently showing things, such as Diane’s remembering her father: “I never understood how he could make it into work the next day until I realized he was a functioning alcoholic.” Though the plot could perhaps have been contained within a short story, the central mystery will hold reader interest.
An intense psychological drama underpins this uneven novel.Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1477818428
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
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