Showing the push-the-envelope spirit of a Terry Southern, Forrester has the makings of a formidable talent.
The faith-healing racket dominates this dark entertainment, a vibrant first novel that’s also driven by a one-man war against God and the power of unconditional love.
Vernon Oliver was born poor in a mobile home in Indiana. His beloved sister Lucy suffered from a painful blood disorder. Along with his righteous Baptist parents, he prayed hard for her recovery. He also promised her a mercy killing, but couldn’t steel himself to do it. Lucy died. God had failed them; Vernon had failed her. Soon after, the Tabernacle Carnival comes to town, promising miracles to the afflicted. The 17-year-old Vernon falls in love with Rickie, one of its employees, and joins the show. Rickie demands loyalty, and Vernon is happy to oblige; he will not fail again. Eventually, handsome, charismatic Vernon catches the eye of Miriam, the mysterious owner, still beautiful in middle age. She decides to groom him for prime time. At Bible Camp in the Everglades, Vernon learns how to manipulate an audience into giving money. Working with him are actors who will be “cured.” Vernon needs no encouragement to take the Lord’s name in vain, not after the Lucy business. His first televangelist gig, in Chicago, is a smash; coked up, he roars into the gathering on his Harley, and the legend of the Biker Preacher is born. Vernon is a swindler, sure, but he makes an appealing anti-hero, because of his candor (“Hope. I’ve been selling that lie for years”) and his devotion to Rickie. And Forrester has more to offer than pseudo-religious shenanigans. There’s a major mystery here. We first meet Vernon on death row, and prison scenes alternate with Vernon’s ascent to big-bucks stardom. What’s he doing there? The answer is a long time coming. Meanwhile, Forrester beguiles us with his story of unhappy childhoods (Rickie’s is a nightmare), blackmail and a double murder.
Showing the push-the-envelope spirit of a Terry Southern, Forrester has the makings of a formidable talent.Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4391-7558-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
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
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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