A somewhat predictable but strangely alluring tale of post-Covid love.
In Murray’s novella, a marketing consultant finds that post-pandemic New York City’s online dating scene is much more than he bargained for—and that it could cost him dearly.
As the story opens, it’s 2021, and 50-year-old Matthew is on his very first date after the start of the Covid-19 lockdown. His companion, Samantha, suddenly grabs his hands and squeezes tight: “What’s wrong?” she asks. “You don’t like me touching you?” Things are moving a little too quickly for the masked Matthew, and he immediately recoils from the contact. “Take off your mask and kiss me on the lips,” a thoroughly disgruntled Samantha presses further; before long, she tells him that she’s unvaccinated. Matthew begs off, and the date is effectively over. “Listen Matthew, you’re a handsome guy, but you’re not my type,” Samantha announces. “I’m sure of it.” Matthew lives a sedate and sober existence, and he hasn’t had a long-term relationship in years; he’s in a vulnerable spot when another date, Stacy, upends his life. She’s an unemployed 45-year-old woman with a trust fund, too much time on her hands, and a curiously unexplored fixation on her often-married father. Still, the very attractive Stacy easily insinuates herself into Matthew’s psyche, despite their obvious lack of chemistry from the start. She’s upfront about her struggles with depression, which Matthew appreciates, but he continually—and perplexingly—ignores a red flag: her avowed aversion to healthy relationships. Indeed, her litany of troubles with old boyfriends doesn’t seem to concern Matthew at all; he’s more than willing, for instance, to accompany Stacy on a late-night stroll around Riverside Park, immediately after her former beau, a troubled saxophone player named Hunter, accosts them in a bar.
None of this matters very much, though, because Murray manages to build effective tension and drama through the use of economical and direct dialogue. Each exchange between Stacy and Matthew ends with an anticipation of danger, consistently propelling the story forward. Like a savvy musician who knows the value of not playing too much, the author generates a palpable sense of impending calamity with the notes he elects to leave out, as when Matthew suggests to Stacy in Riverside Park that they should go back to her apartment: “Stacy kissed me again. ‘No. Not yet. Not yet. Let’s try to enjoy this moment fully.’” However, if there’s one area where Murray falters, it’s in his crafting of a decidedly less-than-bombastic climax. The trajectory of Matthew’s journey with Stacy is easy to predict, and its endpoint is ultimately unsurprising, when all is said and done. However, this may not be the best way to evaluate Murray’s adventure. After all, no piece of music can be rightly evaluated on its conclusion alone; rather, one must take into account the experience of listening to it and the feelings that it evokes. The author’s lean story structure hits enough intriguing notes to keep readers’ attention, even if they can probably predict how the final stanza will sound.
A somewhat predictable but strangely alluring tale of post-Covid love.Pub Date: Sept. 11, 2022
ISBN: 9798352202890
Page Count: 100
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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