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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
Each bullet tells a story.
I liked the premise but did not get drawn in by the characters. I did not connect with Samuel - a father who loves his daughter and protects her from his criminal choices. Loo - his daughter has grown up on the road without anyone but her father.
I liked the premise but did not get drawn in by the characters. I did not connect with Samuel - a father who loves his daughter and protects her from his criminal choices. Loo - his daughter has grown up on the road without anyone but her father.
This is my favorite book for the past several years. I found myself unsure by the end whether Hawley was the hero or the villain of the story, and I love that. This book challenges the reader to consider even the most difficult person’s past, and the steps that brought them to the person they are today. We are challenged to consider everyone as the hero of their own story, and a vital impact on other heroes’ stories. I loved the structure of this book around Hawley’s gunshot wounds, and the writing was phenomenal. I think I will find myself reading this book over and over for years to come. I haven’t read Tinti’s other works, but I am excited to do so soon!
Good writing and decent coming-of-age story. Although alternating chapters hold my interest throughout, character development was lacking. The novel felt young so this novel would probably suit the crowd of younger readers better. Gun lust is not my thing; too much violence and unnecessary blood shed for me. 2.5 stars rounded down.
Spoiler
(e.g. in dialogues and descriptions of feelings and emotions leaning towards the cliché),
This was a slow burner and I took it slow too,savoring the exquisite,profound writing and the emotional and philosophical punches that Hannah Tinti successfully packs into her writing .This story is a coming of age tale with the relationship between a father and a daughter pumping at it's heart (and how many of that do we have out here?🤷 ).The only life ,twelve year Loo knows is constant travelling in a truck from place to place with her father, Hawley-a man who still carries his dead wife around with him in the form of her black and white Polaroids which he sticks on every bathroom wall they ever occupy,her half used shampoo and conditioner bottles that he still keeps even after twelve years and who has his own secrets which are visible as twelve bullet wounds across his body. The story begins when Hawley decides it is time they settle down in one place .They choose Dogtown,Loo's mother Lily's town where her grandmother Mabel Ridge is still alive .From that point ,the story runs as two narratives,the first -Loo growing up from a twelve year old to a seventeen year old and the second -Hawley's own story and at the end their two stories come together , when Hawley's past catches up and they have to run again and daughter becomes father .
As I said ,this is a slow burner and the story becomes intense as you turn the pages.Seriously,this was like watching a Quentin Tarantino film(imagine Kill Bill with Bill as the protagonist trying to run from an unknown past with his daughter)with guns,heists,escapades and the thrill of the unexpected.The only😁😁 thing missing was his cult music.Another good thing was the way she has protrayed the father daughter relationship. There is no drama here at all- just quiet intense love aka understanding between Loo and Hawley and a total acceptance on both sides of who the other person really is.And that brings me to the best part ,there was so much of love in this book underneath all that gunfire .Not to forget the stars and the whales .Loved it❤️❤️.Now,I hope someone makes this into a Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt or Hugh Jackman as the hero🤩🤩🤩
As I said ,this is a slow burner and the story becomes intense as you turn the pages.Seriously,this was like watching a Quentin Tarantino film(imagine Kill Bill with Bill as the protagonist trying to run from an unknown past with his daughter)with guns,heists,escapades and the thrill of the unexpected.The only😁😁 thing missing was his cult music.Another good thing was the way she has protrayed the father daughter relationship. There is no drama here at all- just quiet intense love aka understanding between Loo and Hawley and a total acceptance on both sides of who the other person really is.And that brings me to the best part ,there was so much of love in this book underneath all that gunfire .Not to forget the stars and the whales .Loved it❤️❤️.Now,I hope someone makes this into a Hollywood movie with Brad Pitt or Hugh Jackman as the hero🤩🤩🤩
I had mixed feelings about this one. It was an interesting novel, like nothing I have ever read before. I did find the chapters detailing Loo's journey to be more compelling than the chapters covering Samuel Hawley's story.
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I've always been drawn to coming-of-age stories. The problem has been finding ones that appeal to me in terms of not just the character who's coming-of-age, but also the setting, time period, and minor characters all needing to "click" for me as well. The Last Child by John Hart has always been my go to coming-of-age favorite and recently I've added A Brilliant Death by Robin Yocum to that very short list. Now, I'll be adding The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley ....my list is growing!!
Twelve Lives is, at its core, a novel filled with suspense but, fear not, there's also a mystery for all of us die hard mystery lovers. To start, we meet Samuel, father to Loo and husband of Lily who died many years earlier. Her death had been ruled accidental but as I got further into the story, I began to wonder whether that was true. There are many reasons this question entered my mind, the biggest being Samuel's past. Through chapters alternating between past and present we get to know Samuel, starting around age 20 when he chooses to start down a path of criminality which leads to his first "bullet," that is, the first of TWELVE times he's shot. The chapters follow his life through places like Wyoming, Alaska, The Midwest, and the desert, to the coast of Massachusetts where he and Loo eventually decide to stay and make a home.
These "bullet" chapters alternate with present day ones in which we get to know Loo, Hawley, Mabel (Lily's mom) and many more of the unique characters living in the coastal fishing community. I'm going to be honest, some of the "bullet" chapters became a little monotonous and I found myself rushing to get through them to return back to the present which were my favorite parts of the book. I LOVED reading about Loo and being privy to all of her firsts...1st time shooting guns, 1st love, 1st time driving (illegally of course)...as well as her relationship with Hawley who seemed to hold her at arm's length just a little too much as his fierce desire to protect her from his past was always at the forefront of his mind- it really occupied his thoughts and drove everything he did. I could really understand this because in his (criminal) past he left behind dead bodies, bridges burned, and many enemies made...he knew that one day it would all catch up with him. That's what I meant by suspense and the author built it brilliantly!
The more I write, the more I'm thinking this is actually a harder book to review than I initially thought because there's SO much I could talk about but in the interest of keeping this fairly short, I'll just point out a few final reasons I really loved this book:
Pace - The author has crafted such a well-paced novel that I quickly became immersed in the story from beginning to end
Multidimensional, Flawed Characters - I'm not exactly sure how she created such vivid, nuanced characters, possibly it was her use of exquisitely fine tuned language, but the people in this story were REAL and alive to me
Themes - I loved how she examined the fluidity of time...wishing it could be turned back in Hawley's case but also exploring how he and Loo both discover it actually marches on no matter how much they wished to change or stop it
ManySetting - Loved it!! Small town coastal fishing community...I could picture it perfectly
If you like small town coming-of-age literary novels filled with mystery and suspense, I think you'll really enjoy this read!
I've always been drawn to coming-of-age stories. The problem has been finding ones that appeal to me in terms of not just the character who's coming-of-age, but also the setting, time period, and minor characters all needing to "click" for me as well. The Last Child by John Hart has always been my go to coming-of-age favorite and recently I've added A Brilliant Death by Robin Yocum to that very short list. Now, I'll be adding The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley ....my list is growing!!
Twelve Lives is, at its core, a novel filled with suspense but, fear not, there's also a mystery for all of us die hard mystery lovers. To start, we meet Samuel, father to Loo and husband of Lily who died many years earlier. Her death had been ruled accidental but as I got further into the story, I began to wonder whether that was true. There are many reasons this question entered my mind, the biggest being Samuel's past. Through chapters alternating between past and present we get to know Samuel, starting around age 20 when he chooses to start down a path of criminality which leads to his first "bullet," that is, the first of TWELVE times he's shot. The chapters follow his life through places like Wyoming, Alaska, The Midwest, and the desert, to the coast of Massachusetts where he and Loo eventually decide to stay and make a home.
These "bullet" chapters alternate with present day ones in which we get to know Loo, Hawley, Mabel (Lily's mom) and many more of the unique characters living in the coastal fishing community. I'm going to be honest, some of the "bullet" chapters became a little monotonous and I found myself rushing to get through them to return back to the present which were my favorite parts of the book. I LOVED reading about Loo and being privy to all of her firsts...1st time shooting guns, 1st love, 1st time driving (illegally of course)...as well as her relationship with Hawley who seemed to hold her at arm's length just a little too much as his fierce desire to protect her from his past was always at the forefront of his mind- it really occupied his thoughts and drove everything he did. I could really understand this because in his (criminal) past he left behind dead bodies, bridges burned, and many enemies made...he knew that one day it would all catch up with him. That's what I meant by suspense and the author built it brilliantly!
The more I write, the more I'm thinking this is actually a harder book to review than I initially thought because there's SO much I could talk about but in the interest of keeping this fairly short, I'll just point out a few final reasons I really loved this book:
Pace - The author has crafted such a well-paced novel that I quickly became immersed in the story from beginning to end
Multidimensional, Flawed Characters - I'm not exactly sure how she created such vivid, nuanced characters, possibly it was her use of exquisitely fine tuned language, but the people in this story were REAL and alive to me
Themes - I loved how she examined the fluidity of time...wishing it could be turned back in Hawley's case but also exploring how he and Loo both discover it actually marches on no matter how much they wished to change or stop it
ManySetting - Loved it!! Small town coastal fishing community...I could picture it perfectly
If you like small town coming-of-age literary novels filled with mystery and suspense, I think you'll really enjoy this read!
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really, really did not care about these characters. They were boring and lame. Also, a lot of the things seemed too convenient, especially Loo's boat scene at the end. I just really wanted to get this book over with.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The opening line sets the tone for The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti: “When Loo was twelve years old, her father taught her how to shoot a gun.” The scene following sets up a lot of the critical threads that emerge throughout the novel: the guns, the relationship between Loo and her father, the absence of Loo’s mother, and the fact that her mother also knew how to shoot. There are a lot of guns in this book. And a lot of watches. Themes of violence and the inevitability of time, anyone? I got hooked on the first line, but to be honest, it’s a bit of a slow start after that. There is a steady interest built up throughout, alternating the perspective of Loo in the present, and scenes from the past of Hawley, her father. The scenes from the past of Hawley are titled “Bullet Number One,” “Bullet Number Two,” etc. and it soon becomes apparent that the twelve lives referred to are twelve times Hawley took a bullet and didn’t die.
The quiet setting of a seaside town where Loo settles with her father contrasts with the chaotic and vagrant life he lives prior to her existence. This is the same town where her grandmother still lives. A grandmother who is convinced that Hawley killed her daughter, Loo’s mom. I enjoyed the alteration of perspectives. Hawley’s past, from his beginning as a teenaged petty crook, through to how he met Loo’s mother, and the various jobs he did in between, catching bullets and catching fatherhood in the middle. The scenes with Loo growing up, going to school in the town, meeting (and fighting) people, indulging in a bit of teenaged rebellion, were less interesting to me, but served to hold the story together as it built up questions, until we are wondering with Loo just what exactly did happen to her mother.
I appreciate the building of the characters—although Loo does not start off sterling, she realistically grows up throughout the novel, noticeably changed when she is sixteen from how she started as a snotty pre-teen. Even Hawley, his brushes with death starting off so early in his life, displays a realistic alteration as he matures throughout his life, to the point he is at in the present from Loo’s perspective. But the important things stay the same—Loo’s tenacity and strength, Hawley’s basic decency and unpretending pragmatism. Both of their journeys wheel under a constellation of fiery love, blood, and crime. The trail of bullets shot like a comet to the final, deadly conflict as Hawley’s past catches up with him and his wife rises from her watery grave to have a hand in the reckoning.
I have to be honest, those last few sentences are very “writerly” and pretentious. But that is kind of how this novel is. It is definitely literary fiction, and there are times when the writing seems a bit self-conscious of that fact: meaningful metaphors abound, profound realisations or “epiphanies” are a little bit too common. I enjoyed it, though, and it reminded me a little bit of Tinti’s other novel, The Good Thief, with its themes of fatherhood, love, guilt, and crime. This is a longer, much more ambitious novel with a more complex and fleshed out exploration of these two lives, how they have been shaped, and how they are shaping themselves. It’s a rewarding read with an intense resolution if you stick with it through the beginning.
The quiet setting of a seaside town where Loo settles with her father contrasts with the chaotic and vagrant life he lives prior to her existence. This is the same town where her grandmother still lives. A grandmother who is convinced that Hawley killed her daughter, Loo’s mom. I enjoyed the alteration of perspectives. Hawley’s past, from his beginning as a teenaged petty crook, through to how he met Loo’s mother, and the various jobs he did in between, catching bullets and catching fatherhood in the middle. The scenes with Loo growing up, going to school in the town, meeting (and fighting) people, indulging in a bit of teenaged rebellion, were less interesting to me, but served to hold the story together as it built up questions, until we are wondering with Loo just what exactly did happen to her mother.
I appreciate the building of the characters—although Loo does not start off sterling, she realistically grows up throughout the novel, noticeably changed when she is sixteen from how she started as a snotty pre-teen. Even Hawley, his brushes with death starting off so early in his life, displays a realistic alteration as he matures throughout his life, to the point he is at in the present from Loo’s perspective. But the important things stay the same—Loo’s tenacity and strength, Hawley’s basic decency and unpretending pragmatism. Both of their journeys wheel under a constellation of fiery love, blood, and crime. The trail of bullets shot like a comet to the final, deadly conflict as Hawley’s past catches up with him and his wife rises from her watery grave to have a hand in the reckoning.
I have to be honest, those last few sentences are very “writerly” and pretentious. But that is kind of how this novel is. It is definitely literary fiction, and there are times when the writing seems a bit self-conscious of that fact: meaningful metaphors abound, profound realisations or “epiphanies” are a little bit too common. I enjoyed it, though, and it reminded me a little bit of Tinti’s other novel, The Good Thief, with its themes of fatherhood, love, guilt, and crime. This is a longer, much more ambitious novel with a more complex and fleshed out exploration of these two lives, how they have been shaped, and how they are shaping themselves. It’s a rewarding read with an intense resolution if you stick with it through the beginning.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment
This is the second sleeper 5 star book I have read this year. I really like it and will probably still be thinking about it in several months but it never made me skip something else just to read it which is what I need for a 5 book. That being said, this is the story of Samuel and Loo Hawley. It is told over two timelines: Loo in current times as a teenage girl, and Samuel in the past through the events that eventually give him 12 shooting injuries. Through these episodes, we learn that Loo's mother died and that Hawley hasn't always been a law abiding person, how Hawley struggled with parenthood and Loo with herself as she moves from childhood to adulthood. Ms. Tinti beautifully highlights the intermost feelings of her characters, especially the internal struggles they face throughout the book. Heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time, this is a beautiful book!
A copy was provided by NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.
A copy was provided by NetGalley and Random House in exchange for an honest review.