An evocative exploration of desire and sexuality, this dark debut will cause readers to question the very nature of consent.
Posting a naked selfie online leads Eve into a fraught ménage à trois with Olivia and Nathan, a wealthy couple with secrets of their own.
A 20-something bisexual in a fulfilling and happy relationship with a woman, Eve finds herself thrust down the dark, twisted, and sometimes frightening path of desiring a man’s attention. Along the way, she becomes obsessed with Nathan, by turns jealous and protective of Olivia, and distant from Romi, her devoted girlfriend of many years. When the sexual games that Nathan and Olivia are playing result in a legal dispute with a third woman, Eve must face her own complicity, the true nature of her relationship with Nathan, and the lengths she is willing to go to protect him. A coldhearted, unflinching, and unromantic chronicle of sexual exploits, emotional manipulation, and, above all, power, this debut novel explores the unconscious desires that can unravel a person's very sense of self. Eve notes that her desire for Nathan’s attention is, in part, born out of envy for his emotional independence: “I wondered how I could get what he had—absolute freedom, a life of embodied prowess, in which I might float through a landscape of love and sex without promising myself to anyone.” Reminiscent of Sally Rooney’s work, this challenging—and often disturbing—exploration of sex, bodies, narcissism, and a culture that no longer values sincerity is tonally darker and rife with cruelty. When Nathan tells Eve that he knew just what she wanted without asking, she is struck not by the intimacy of the statement but “the soft hush of certainty” in his words. But is this submission to a man what she really wants—or is it what she’s been convinced, all her life, that she deserves?
An evocative exploration of desire and sexuality, this dark debut will cause readers to question the very nature of consent.
Pub Date: May 3, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-24376-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Hogarth
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2022
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by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 18, 2022
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
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
