An absorbing, thought-provoking tale of the dark side of romance despite generally unlikable characters.
In Robinson’s debut thriller, a love potion helps a Georgia woman snare the man of her dreams, but its side effects prove to be dangerous—for both of them.
Tracy Raymond is obsessed with Jake Benjamin, the lead singer of the popular rock band Half Washed. She believes that it’s “true love,” but reciprocation from Jake, who doesn’t even know her, seems unattainable. So her friends Janie Smith and AJ Nixon suggest that she buy a love potion from a local woman named Madam Zelle, whom AJ describes as a “Gypsy.” It turns out that the potion costs $10,000 a bottle, but Tracy is so desperate to win Jake over that she buys one. AJ scores Tracy an invite to a concert after-party, where she slips the potion into one of Jake’s drinks. It works, and their night of passion is followed by days of love and romance. However, when Jake becomes physically ill, Tracy realizes that it’s a side effect of the potion—one that appears to be remedied by additional doses. Unfortunately, his drug-induced love slowly turns into paranoia and possessiveness. As Tracy gives him more of the potion, his behavior deteriorates further into aggression and outright physical abuse. Although she fears that Jake will leave her if he stops taking the concoction, the consequences of continuing could be much worse. Robinson’s book lacks sympathetic characters; Tracy is undeniably obsessive, and Janie and AJ enable her by helping her to secretly drug a celebrity. That said, Robinson deftly handles a number of serious topics in this thriller, including domestic abuse; Tracy’s need for Jake’s love is effectively shown to be akin to a drug addiction, particularly when she starts spending far too much money on additional, costlier bottles of the potion. The descriptions are adequate but occasionally too skeletal; at one point, for instance, Tracy runs into three co-workers on the street, and readers learn nothing about them aside from their names. The ending is, perhaps unsurprisingly, brutal and violent, but it also provides a denouement that won’t be easily forgotten.
An absorbing, thought-provoking tale of the dark side of romance despite generally unlikable characters.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 188
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2019
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
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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