As nasty as it gets, this French noir sets itself apart with its beating heart.
After serving five years in prison for carrying his older brother Fabien’s drugs, 26-year-old Frenchman Franck quickly finds himself in compromising situations with Fabien’s girlfriend, Jessica, and her drug-dealing family.
Franck had planned to move on with his life after reuniting with Fabien, who walked away from the drug bust thanks to his sibling’s silence. But Fabien is away in Spain on “business” and may never come back. In his absence, Franck can’t resist tumbling into an intense affair with Jessica, a femme fatale who runs hot and ice cold. “Unpredictable, unfathomable, poisonous,” she is just as erratic with her daughter, Rachel, an oddly nonresponsive 8-year-old. Franck has barely settled into a trailer outside Jessica’s parents’ faded house in southwestern France when her creepy father presses him into running drug errands, arming him with a gun. No macho dude, Franck is prone to weeping when his bones are being crushed by bad guys. Lost without his brother, he spins through streams of consciousness in which he wonders “if he still [exists].” But after Jessica is raped and left half-naked in an alley, he finds a more formidable side of himself. Though the book is rooted in classic noir (think Jim Thompson), its focus is increasingly on the mistreatment of children—by Jessica, her grotesque parents, and Franck’s neglectful parents. The long-term damage from which Rachel will suffer can only be imagined: “It was likely she’d already experienced too much for her age.” Le Corre has a tendency to repeat the same basic scenes, but he sustains a coiled intensity in exposing a life in which innocence is nowhere to be found.
As nasty as it gets, this French noir sets itself apart with its beating heart.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2024
ISBN: 9781609459765
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024
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
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.
A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.
Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek–like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter.
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781984879325
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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