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suvata's review against another edition
3.0
For some reason, this book didn't hold my interest. I only read about half of it before abandoning it all together.
maryquitecontrary_22's review
4.0
A gritty coming-of-age story that has an unique storyline. Tinti is a superb writer-- I especially liked the foreshadowing she used to keep you on the age of your seat and the complex characters she developed-- I can't think of a single character in the text who is one dimensional. Would recommend to readers who like a fast moving plot and genre-bending novels.
jilly7922's review
5.0
This book is about mainly a father and a daughter and their intricate relationship. Samuel Hawley is your typical bad boy who has lived a dangerous lifestyle and is now responsible for raising his daughter Loo. Samuel Hawley is trying to start anew in raising his daughter and in not letting his past catch up with him, and in making sure his daughter Loo is raised properly and does not get into the trouble he did.
Overall I rated this book five stars out of five. This was an excellent book that I cannot speak more highly about. The character development was superb and in depth. This was definitely one heart breaker of a book, but it was inspiring and bittersweet at the same time. Reading about the relationship between Samuel Hawley and his daughter Loo was tearing me up it was so raw. This book pulled me in from the first page all the way to the end.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Hannah Tinti, and Random House Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
For more book reviews come and read my book review blog at: http://turnthepagereviewsbyjill.blogspot.com
Overall I rated this book five stars out of five. This was an excellent book that I cannot speak more highly about. The character development was superb and in depth. This was definitely one heart breaker of a book, but it was inspiring and bittersweet at the same time. Reading about the relationship between Samuel Hawley and his daughter Loo was tearing me up it was so raw. This book pulled me in from the first page all the way to the end.
I would like to thank Netgalley, Hannah Tinti, and Random House Publishing Group for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
For more book reviews come and read my book review blog at: http://turnthepagereviewsbyjill.blogspot.com
kittey2ng's review
5.0
Loved this book! Kept wanting to read to find out what was going on. Even though dad wasn't nice guy author gave insight as to why he ended up the way he did.
geekwayne's review
4.0
'The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley' by Hannah Tinti and it's a good one. Alternating between a father and daughter and his rough past, I found it to be a good balance of love and violence.
Samuel Hawley and his daughter Loo have been on the run for most of her life, living in hotels and being ready to flee at a moment's notice. Now they are settling down in a small town in Massachusetts. Loo is a teenager who is curious about her past, and this town holds some of the answers. Her father has a body full of wounds, and in twelve stories, we learn where some of the damage came from.
There is a tenderness and love to the father and daughter, but the father is all business and willing to shoot first. The problems of his past trouble him and hang over the story. Loo is a capable young woman who trusts her father, but is beginning to have questions.
I really enjoyed reading this. The prose is beautiful in places. I also loved how Hawley's story has taken him all over the United States. He's not a good guy, but he's not unsympathetic, which is a tough balance. I look forward to seeing what this author writes next.
I received a review copy of this ebook from The Dial Press, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
Samuel Hawley and his daughter Loo have been on the run for most of her life, living in hotels and being ready to flee at a moment's notice. Now they are settling down in a small town in Massachusetts. Loo is a teenager who is curious about her past, and this town holds some of the answers. Her father has a body full of wounds, and in twelve stories, we learn where some of the damage came from.
There is a tenderness and love to the father and daughter, but the father is all business and willing to shoot first. The problems of his past trouble him and hang over the story. Loo is a capable young woman who trusts her father, but is beginning to have questions.
I really enjoyed reading this. The prose is beautiful in places. I also loved how Hawley's story has taken him all over the United States. He's not a good guy, but he's not unsympathetic, which is a tough balance. I look forward to seeing what this author writes next.
I received a review copy of this ebook from The Dial Press, Random House Publishing Group, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
sassysoles82's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kplovesstories's review
4.0
I can’t really explain why I loved this.
I can’t even really explain the plot.
I just loved the heartfelt relationship of a rough father and a sweet daughter after the tragic loss of her mother.
I can’t even really explain the plot.
I just loved the heartfelt relationship of a rough father and a sweet daughter after the tragic loss of her mother.
peter_gagne's review
3.0
The story and the structure of the book were 5 stars, but the writing was only 3. A little too stereotypical and not as gritty and raw as the main character purported to be.
echory's review
2.0
Everyone in this book needs therapy. I found it really hard to get behind anyone in this book.
novelvisits's review
5.0
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
Publisher: The Dial Press
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Length: 400 pages
Originally at: http://www.novelvisits.com/twelve-lives-samuel-hawley-hannah-tanti/
Single Sentence Summary: Samuel Hawley’s teenage daughter, Loo, is just beginning to put together the pieces about her father’s dark history – his very dark history.
Primary Characters: Samuel Hawley – Samuel has been a lot of things in his life: a desperate teenager, a common thief, a killer, a loving husband, a father, a protector. Loo Hawley – A brilliant girl, teenage Loo finds herself settled for the first time and it’s in the town where her mother grew up. Questions inevitably follow.
Synopsis: For as long as she can remember Loo and her father have led a life on the move. Their homes? Motels. Their stays? Weeks to months. Her schooling? Sporadic. Their traveling companions? Guns, rifles, a licorice jar stuffed with money, and a bear skin rug. As Loo reaches her teens, Samuel wants to give her a more normal life, so settles them both in Olympus, Massachusetts where Loo’s mother grew up. Such a huge life change brings with it questions: questions about her mother, questions about their life on the run, and most of all questions about Samuel, for he is the biggest unknown in Loo’s life.
Review: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti’s new book, is definitely one of my favorites this year. She did a masterful job of combining a coming-of-age story with a dark mystery. The chapters alternated between Samuel’s past and the life Loo and Samuel shared in Olympus. Samuel’s life unfolded through the bullet wounds on his body. Each scar revealed a little more about the man that he was and the life of crime he’d chosen for himself. The other chapters focused more on Loo and her reactions to being the new girl in her mother’s hometown. But, the more Loo learned the more questions she had about Samuel and his dark past.
It’s easy to love a book when you love the characters and I was crazy about both Samuel and Loo in The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. Taking an objective look at Samuel Hawley, there really is far more to dislike than to like. He was a criminal and a killer. The choices he’d made spilled over into the lives of the people he loved most, his wife, Lily, and his daughter, Louise. Somehow, Tanti managed to give this man redeeming qualities so that I couldn’t help but care about Samuel. He was a man in pain who, above all else, loved and wanted to protect his daughter.
“Hawley told her it was her mother’s hometown…..A normal life, Hawley said. With a real house and a neighborhood and friends her own age and a school where she could find a place to belong.”
Loo captivated me even more than Samuel. This was a girl who’d led a life on the run, and the transition to “normal” was not an easy one for Loo. She was different than most kids and making friends was not a skill she’d ever learned. Loo had holes in her life, the biggest being her mother. She’d only known Lily through Samuel and the small shrine he built to her in the bathroom everywhere they had lived. As a teen walking the same streets her mother had, Loo’s appetite for details about Lily could not be quenched, and Samuel couldn’t give her more. When she looked to others for answers, Loo began to see her father with fresh eyes. What she saw slowly eroded their bond.
“Loo watched him shoulder the rifle and understood, in a flickering moment, that her father was exactly that – a professional. All the guns in their house. All the scars on his body. All the ways that he was careful. It was because of this.”
Hannah Tanti’s writing was truly magnificent. She didn’t judge her characters, but treated them with empathy. She gave reasons for Sam’s actions without excusing them. In Loo she created a character that elicited both sympathy and hope. I’m predicting that The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley will be high on my list of top books for 2017! Grade: A
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.
Publisher: The Dial Press
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Length: 400 pages
Originally at: http://www.novelvisits.com/twelve-lives-samuel-hawley-hannah-tanti/
Single Sentence Summary: Samuel Hawley’s teenage daughter, Loo, is just beginning to put together the pieces about her father’s dark history – his very dark history.
Primary Characters: Samuel Hawley – Samuel has been a lot of things in his life: a desperate teenager, a common thief, a killer, a loving husband, a father, a protector. Loo Hawley – A brilliant girl, teenage Loo finds herself settled for the first time and it’s in the town where her mother grew up. Questions inevitably follow.
Synopsis: For as long as she can remember Loo and her father have led a life on the move. Their homes? Motels. Their stays? Weeks to months. Her schooling? Sporadic. Their traveling companions? Guns, rifles, a licorice jar stuffed with money, and a bear skin rug. As Loo reaches her teens, Samuel wants to give her a more normal life, so settles them both in Olympus, Massachusetts where Loo’s mother grew up. Such a huge life change brings with it questions: questions about her mother, questions about their life on the run, and most of all questions about Samuel, for he is the biggest unknown in Loo’s life.
Review: The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti’s new book, is definitely one of my favorites this year. She did a masterful job of combining a coming-of-age story with a dark mystery. The chapters alternated between Samuel’s past and the life Loo and Samuel shared in Olympus. Samuel’s life unfolded through the bullet wounds on his body. Each scar revealed a little more about the man that he was and the life of crime he’d chosen for himself. The other chapters focused more on Loo and her reactions to being the new girl in her mother’s hometown. But, the more Loo learned the more questions she had about Samuel and his dark past.
It’s easy to love a book when you love the characters and I was crazy about both Samuel and Loo in The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. Taking an objective look at Samuel Hawley, there really is far more to dislike than to like. He was a criminal and a killer. The choices he’d made spilled over into the lives of the people he loved most, his wife, Lily, and his daughter, Louise. Somehow, Tanti managed to give this man redeeming qualities so that I couldn’t help but care about Samuel. He was a man in pain who, above all else, loved and wanted to protect his daughter.
“Hawley told her it was her mother’s hometown…..A normal life, Hawley said. With a real house and a neighborhood and friends her own age and a school where she could find a place to belong.”
Loo captivated me even more than Samuel. This was a girl who’d led a life on the run, and the transition to “normal” was not an easy one for Loo. She was different than most kids and making friends was not a skill she’d ever learned. Loo had holes in her life, the biggest being her mother. She’d only known Lily through Samuel and the small shrine he built to her in the bathroom everywhere they had lived. As a teen walking the same streets her mother had, Loo’s appetite for details about Lily could not be quenched, and Samuel couldn’t give her more. When she looked to others for answers, Loo began to see her father with fresh eyes. What she saw slowly eroded their bond.
“Loo watched him shoulder the rifle and understood, in a flickering moment, that her father was exactly that – a professional. All the guns in their house. All the scars on his body. All the ways that he was careful. It was because of this.”
Hannah Tanti’s writing was truly magnificent. She didn’t judge her characters, but treated them with empathy. She gave reasons for Sam’s actions without excusing them. In Loo she created a character that elicited both sympathy and hope. I’m predicting that The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley will be high on my list of top books for 2017! Grade: A
Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.