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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
This book is somewhere between 3.5 and not quite a 4 star book. This was a story with a fuzzy time period. I am thinking it was supposed to move back and forth between present day and maybe 20 years earlier, yet it had a feeling of taking place a generation earlier. I liked the characters, yet everyone seemed so unhappy.
A bit of a beach read, I thought Hawley and Loo were loveable but somewhat single-note in terms of character dimension. So many guns, I get it, Hawley is a tough guy. The twist towards the end, about Lily, was surprising, but was far enough in that I'd given up trying to guess what happened.
3.5 Great writing, but I felt left hanging in several places
This is a unique book—I can’t think of any novels to compare it to. It begins when Loo is twelve years old. She and her father have been on the run her entire life—sometimes staying someplace for six months, other times moving quickly from hotel to hotel in the dead of night. Now, Loo’s father Hawley buys a home in Loo’s dead mother’s hometown in Massachusetts with the idea that they won’t have to move again and Loo can have something resembling a normal life.
The story covers Loo from the age of twelve to seventeen and went back and forth in time to how Hawley met her mother and how he got his twelve gunshot wounds. Some of the writing was really beautiful, but what kept me turning pages was wanting to find out about Hawley’s criminal past and what was going to happen to the two of them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t identify or like any of the characters, so I didn’t love the book.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.
For more of my reviews, please visit: http://www.theresaalan.net/blog
The story covers Loo from the age of twelve to seventeen and went back and forth in time to how Hawley met her mother and how he got his twelve gunshot wounds. Some of the writing was really beautiful, but what kept me turning pages was wanting to find out about Hawley’s criminal past and what was going to happen to the two of them.
Unfortunately, I didn’t identify or like any of the characters, so I didn’t love the book.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.
For more of my reviews, please visit: http://www.theresaalan.net/blog
Loved the style in which this book was written with each chapter transporting you to a different time and place in Hawley's life. The issue I had with the story line however, was it just seemed a bit too "unreal" for me. The situations Hawley found himself in, the death of his wife, the entire ending seemed far reaching for me.
I got over halfway through and just wasn't into it. I didn't like how the story was broken up by flashbacks that didn't seem that relevant. Maybe they turn out to be in the end, but I didn't care enough to stick around and find out.
"Their hearts were all cycling through the same madness—the discovery, the bliss, the loss, the despair—like planets taking turns in orbit around the sun. Each containing their own unique gravity. Their own force of attraction. Drawing near and holding fast to whatever entered their own atmosphere."
I just finished this riveting and exquisite story and I am finding it so hard to wrap my head around that it's over. I wanted this story to go on for so much longer!
In my opinion, this story is a crossover between YA and an adult novel. We learn about Hawley's past and how it connects to his present, while showing us why he is the way he is, which then leads up to seeing why Loo is the person she is. This story is much more complex as I first though. After finishing it I read some articles about it and realized that the author was loosely basing it off of Hercules and his 12 labors. There were quite a few mythical references that I need to study up on, because most went right over my head 🙈
Hannah Tinti's writing was gorgeous, lyrical and just so phenomenal. She wrote with such heart and focused so greatly on description that the characters and their story leapt off of the page for me! I could not put this book down. The characters were strong, intense, rough, violent, kind(ish) and misunderstood, and even though they were hard to love at times, I found myself loving them and their somewhat dysfunctional relationship. Tinti shows us how our parents influence us so greatly, and how even when you think you know your parent, you really have no idea who they were before you came along. She also shows up how we are impacted by the way and the depth in which we are loved.
I just finished this riveting and exquisite story and I am finding it so hard to wrap my head around that it's over. I wanted this story to go on for so much longer!
In my opinion, this story is a crossover between YA and an adult novel. We learn about Hawley's past and how it connects to his present, while showing us why he is the way he is, which then leads up to seeing why Loo is the person she is. This story is much more complex as I first though. After finishing it I read some articles about it and realized that the author was loosely basing it off of Hercules and his 12 labors. There were quite a few mythical references that I need to study up on, because most went right over my head 🙈
Hannah Tinti's writing was gorgeous, lyrical and just so phenomenal. She wrote with such heart and focused so greatly on description that the characters and their story leapt off of the page for me! I could not put this book down. The characters were strong, intense, rough, violent, kind(ish) and misunderstood, and even though they were hard to love at times, I found myself loving them and their somewhat dysfunctional relationship. Tinti shows us how our parents influence us so greatly, and how even when you think you know your parent, you really have no idea who they were before you came along. She also shows up how we are impacted by the way and the depth in which we are loved.
It's a interesting mix of coming-of-age and man-on-the-run stories. The writing is good, the characters are engaging, and the structure is kinda genius. It's a solid crime drama, and would probably work great as a movie.
Three and a half stars, and if I re-read it, it might get bumped to four.
Three and a half stars, and if I re-read it, it might get bumped to four.
I read this one several months ago, but have not reviewed it until now because I’m still not sure how I feel about it. I read the book or the online Riffle book club. One thing I can say is that had it not been for the book club, I would have skipped this one. Nothing about the synopsis pulled me in, but I’d had an excerpt in my mailbox, so I read it. That would have been the end of it for me, but I was offered a copy of the book in order to participate in the book club. Even though I still have mixed feelings about the book, I can say it is an excellent book club selection!
Most of the characters in this book were not particularly likeable—and yet I ended up liking them! This was particularly true of Samuel Hawley, a man with a criminal past who collected bullets with his body! He was not great father material, hopping from location to location with his daughter, never giving her any stability in her early childhood years. If I met him in real life, I’d run the other way, and dislike him very much. But at the end of the book, I really cared what happened to him! I felt similarly about his daughter, Loo. She had a rough childhood and was not a girl I’d want to hang out with, but still, I cared about her and her story.
One thing that annoyed me about this book was the ambiguous ending. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that as the book ended, I really didn’t know what happened. I really wish the author would have been explicit about what happened to the characters, and perhaps even written an epilogue letting us know what happened in the characters’ futures.
As I said, this would make an excellent book club selection. Our online group discussed everything from character motivations, our feelings about the characters, and the ambiguous ending. This discussion is still online, so if you read the book, hop on into the discussion. You can find it here. There are author’s notes and discussion questions included in the book. Visit the author’s website where you will find a reader’s guide and a q&a with the author.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in order to participate in the initial online Riffle book club.
Most of the characters in this book were not particularly likeable—and yet I ended up liking them! This was particularly true of Samuel Hawley, a man with a criminal past who collected bullets with his body! He was not great father material, hopping from location to location with his daughter, never giving her any stability in her early childhood years. If I met him in real life, I’d run the other way, and dislike him very much. But at the end of the book, I really cared what happened to him! I felt similarly about his daughter, Loo. She had a rough childhood and was not a girl I’d want to hang out with, but still, I cared about her and her story.
One thing that annoyed me about this book was the ambiguous ending. I don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that as the book ended, I really didn’t know what happened. I really wish the author would have been explicit about what happened to the characters, and perhaps even written an epilogue letting us know what happened in the characters’ futures.
As I said, this would make an excellent book club selection. Our online group discussed everything from character motivations, our feelings about the characters, and the ambiguous ending. This discussion is still online, so if you read the book, hop on into the discussion. You can find it here. There are author’s notes and discussion questions included in the book. Visit the author’s website where you will find a reader’s guide and a q&a with the author.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher in order to participate in the initial online Riffle book club.
There were moments in this book where I thought the writing was really beautiful and spot on. But there were also a lot of moments that seemed to drag on for me. There was a lot of open-endedness that normally doesn't bother me, but I also felt like maybe there wasn't enough to satisfy me without a few more answers here.
Decent, but, not quite doing it for me.
Decent, but, not quite doing it for me.