An often moving novel hampered by a tendency toward overwriting.
In Dean’s generational saga, two Missouri families become locked in a deadly feud.
It’s 1973, and Walker Scofield seems bewildered by the falling fortunes of his once-successful clan. The considerable land they once owned in Missouri is now gone, and his son, Merle, is an alcoholic who shows no signs of changing his ways. Walker can’t help but dolefully ask himself,“How had it all gone wrong?” Then Merle’s son, Troy, murders local Bobby Lee Phelps and burns his house down in retribution for taking up with his flirtatious wife, Alisha. Troy is sent to jail, but when he gets out,Alisha leaves town, terrified that he’ll hunt her down and continue his mission of vengeance. She moves in with John Wrenwood, an insurance salesman; however, she’s eventually disappointed when Troy doesn’t come looking for her, and she even feels a strange desire to return to him. Meanwhile, Raelyn Phelps, Bobby Lee’s teenage niece, runs away from home; she’s tired of feeling taken for granted by her parents, who treat her like a servant and routinely beat her. She doesn’t manage to make it very far from home, though, and ends up living with Troy, whom she fears but also finds ruggedly handsome; she also doesn’t care that he killed Bobby Lee, “since she had never particularly liked her uncle.” Word of their relationship travels quickly, setting the stage for a brutal reprisal from the Phelps family, who believe that Troy still hasn’t atoned for his crimes.
In the best parts of this novel, Dean writes with great restraint and intelligence, effectively depicting the downward spiral of the two families and engagingly showing how their grim destinies are intertwined. They all live amid the ruins of their collective descent, and Fairmont, Missouri, is vividly portrayed as a forlorn site of former promise. Furthermore, the author has a notable talent for creating atmosphere; a kind of sad predestination hangs above the Phelpses and Scofields like a darkened storm cloud, just waiting to finally burst. However, Dean’s prose style swings from poetically poignant to gratuitously overwrought, as when the narration notes that “Time had moved at a hectic pace, passing in a variegated rhythm under the malefic sun, and blurring under a series of red moons stretching over decades as time had plodded inexorably forward in a fog of partial recollections.” Another passage uses the term “Beowulfian” as an adjective, which is as pretentious as it is unclear. In addition, the book seems overpopulated with characters and subplots that are likely to ultimately overwhelm the reader. In short, the work sometimes feels as if it’s straining too much for literary heights. That said, the plot at the center of the novel, focusing on the decline and mutual acrimony of the two clans, is elegiacally sad, and many readers will find this to be a darkly enchanting novel—one that transports them to a world filled with despair but not quite empty of hope.
An often moving novel hampered by a tendency toward overwriting.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2021
ISBN: 979-8487371959
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Cowboy Jamboree Press
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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