My October 2021 Halloween post, Baby Teeth, about the very disturbed, homicidal 7-year-old Hanna, who tried on more than one occasion to kill her mother, is now 25 years old in the novel Dear Hanna by Zoje Stage. This sequel puts us in the passenger seat of Hanna’s disturbed mind as a grown-up trying to keep the family that she’s built.
The novel is told through Hanna’s narrative and her thoughts. She actually still blames her parents for sending her to the institute for disturbed children and blames her mother for her father turning away from her. The few years at the institute has taught Hanna how to hide her violent urges from people better, and she still has them. She doesn’t believe anything she’s done is wrong and still believes her mother is the main problem, not her. Surprisingly, Hanna still lived with her parents, although estranged, until she moved out to live with and then marry her husband, Jacob.
One positive person in Hanna’s life seems to be her younger 13-year-old brother, Goose, who is away at a boarding school. They write letters to each other, where they disclose their inner thoughts and work out their daily life problems. Several short chapters are devoted to these letters, which offers a good look into the mind of Hanna and you realize she hasn’t really changed at all.
Drowning written by author T J Newman, is an ex-flight attendant, so she really knows what the responsibilities and capabilities of flight attendants are. She brought them to the forefront of this story and gave them authentic power and relevance. Â
Crashed and submerged in the ocean, passengers aboard a commercial airplane come together to survive. The author educates us about the dynamics of the ocean, diving to its depths, and capabilities of underwater rescue. There are ten people aboard the submerged plane.
Will Kent and his eleven-year-old daughter, Shannon, are aboard a flight between Honolulu and his daughter’s summer camp in California. Minutes after take-off, one of the engines burst into flames, followed by system failures of the aircraft, forcing the crew to land on open water. They did not have the capability to turn around or reach anywhere else on land. Air traffic control is aware of their situation and approximate location, by way of the crew’s last communications. The crew has informed them they have to land on the ocean below them.
Will, an oil rig engineer is familiar with the environment and conditions of the ocean, and advises the surviving crew not to leave the cabin of the plane, which sounds crazy to the other passengers, who believe it’s the obvious course of action to go out to the open water away from the plane to be picked up by responding rescue crews. But Will explains that the engulfing fires outside combined with the trade winds over the open water, a slow-moving emergency raft or a person swimming, could not outmaneuver the unpredictable moving bodies of flames. Anyone going outside would eventually be burned alive. Some take his advice, some don’t. A short time after most of the passengers leave the plane, the engine explodes and the plane sinks to the ocean floor with the remaining passengers inside and the inferno above with the other passengers, with the rescue teams on their way.Â
Once submerged the author explains the dynamics of the ocean, how deep it is and the dangers of the pressure changes below. The ocean is broken into five zones, with the top five percent being the most inhabited sunlight zone. The remaining four were darker, colder, and subject to extreme pressure. Once the rescue teams arrived, they discovered that the plane was banked, nose down on the summit of a sunken volcano, that was now a broad shelf or cliff – they were within reach, 55 meters (180 ft) down. But how to get 10 people out of a sunken container without drowning them was the puzzle.
The co-protagonist in the novel is Will Kent’s wife, Chris, who is the owner of an underwater construction and rescue/recovery diving company. She is an expert diver and architect of new designs to fit unique situations that may arise in the marine environment. She believes her crew has the knowledge and capability to rescue the remaining crew and passengers of the submerged plane, however, being civilians among Navy and Coast Guard personnel, their expertise is sidelined and undermined, expending precious time and oxygen of the people below the surface. Not to mention failure could also mean compromising the vulnerable positioning of the submerged plane, sending it over the edge to the dark pressurized depths below.
The novel is fast paced, with technical mentions and explanations of the plane’s design, deep diving technique, and underwater rescue, which was interesting and intense. Relating this knowledge informed the reader just how dangerous and precarious the situation really was and that no one was safe, not the submerged passengers or those attempting rescue. Â
Simultaneously, on the emotional end, the experiences of the passengers and the plane’s crew are brought to life skillfully by the author, sometimes with tearjerking intensity. I loved the interactions between the passengers and the technical/rescue teams above, just great! Drowning by T J Newman is an action-packed thriller of a read, with tensions building right to the very end. I recommend this one for sure!Â
This is the second novel that I’ve read by this author, the first being The Mother In Law.The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth is a psychological thriller concerning two sisters, that takes place in Australia. These two sisters are so close, they would do anything to protect each other. But what happens when one sister’s ambitions, outweighs the well-being of the other?
Fern and Rose are fraternal twins, twenty-eight years old, that have depended on each other all their lives. We learn about both women through chapters narrated by Fern and chapters that are Rose’s journal entries. Fern is possibly autistic and has sensory processing issues – she’s hypersensitive to sound, smell, light and being touched. She tells the reader she has done something bad as a girl and believes she needs to depend on Rose to keep her out of trouble. Fern works as a librarian and keeps a regular routine to maintain order and stability in her life.
Rose is a married, interior designer, who is having trouble getting pregnant. She believes that if she can have a child, it would help her marriage to Owen, who is away working in London. Through Rose’s journal entries, we learn about the sister’s troubled childhood with their psychologically abusive mother and how they learned to look out for each other at a young age.
Fern discovers Rose’s problem and decides to become pregnant and give the child to her sister – the perfect gift for the sister that is always there for her. She meets a man in the library where she works – a walk-in named Wally, who also has anxiety and sensory issues and had a nervous breakdown in the past. Fern and Wally really get along well together as a couple, but she breaks things off once she gets pregnant – she doesn’t want Wally to know about her pregnancy because she intends to give the child to Rose.
However, once Rose hears the news that Fern is pregnant, she takes control of Fern’s life. She insists Fern move in with her and monitors her every move. A few months into the pregnancy, Rose presents Fern with adoption papers for Fern to “relinquish her rights as a parent” and suggests that Fern not name the father on the birth certificate so that he will never have a claim to the child, which gives Fern an alarm to her sister’s cunning and coldness.
As time goes on, Fern has her doubts about signing the final adoption papers. There seems to be two Roses – the one who takes care of Fern and the one who it seems, would do whatever it takes to keep Fern’s child. She finds out many disturbing things about her sister. In the end, Fern realizes she must break away from Rose and keep her child and she knows Rose won’t let her.
This turned out to be an interesting psychological thriller, filled with twist, turns, surprises and family drama. The characters are refreshing and seem real and believable, which makes this novel an easy read. The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth, is an entertaining read. I’m glad I gave this author a second look.
May 2022 BPL Copy
Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay
This novel, is also the second I’ve read by this author, the first being Elevator Pitch (see my 2/2020 post – High Rise Nightmare). Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay is a fast-paced thriller that concerns the mysterious disappearance of a man’s wife and the fallout years later.
Anthony Mason’s wife, Brie, suddenly disappeared from their home in Milford, Connecticut six years ago, while he was on a fishing trip with his best friend, but the police considered him a prime suspect. His friends, neighbors and residents of the town where he lived, and the press treated him like a suspect as well. Brie’s family, her mother, brother and sister, also believe he had something to do with his wife’s disappearance, so he moves away to another town and changes his name to Anthony Carville. Now six years later, Anthony lives in the town of Milford, in a new home, with his girlfriend, Jane Keeling.
Anthony’s new peaceful life is shattered, when a woman resembling Brie Mason shows up to their old address wanting to know where her old house is and then drives off. The next door neighbor recognizes her and calls Anthony and the police informing them, which brings up questions for Anthony and raises suspicions again for the police. The woman also shows up outside Brie’s dying mother’s hospital, which convinces her mother and siblings that she is alive. At this point, the reader may be convinced that she is alive also, but then that’s when this novel takes off with surprising, dangerous developments and you begin to wonder who wanted Brie to disappear.
This thriller is set six years after Brie’s disappearance, over the course of four days, with flashbacks giving the reader a history of what happened six years before, as Anthony tries to find out what happened to his wife. Could she still be alive? If so, where has she been all these years? Why hasn’t she contacted him or at least her family? And soon, he finds out that answering these questions could endanger his life.
This novel is an exciting, fast-paced thriller, with a suspenseful, whodunnit vibe and an excellent ending – meaning the villain really gets what’s coming to them! I give Take Your Breath Away by Linwood Barclay a thumbs up! I hope you give both these titles a read.
My last installment featured cute, innocent baby animals, with some being endangered and in need of protection. This book, however, is about a little girl that isn’t innocent at all and may be a danger to others. So, I thought I’d review this one for Halloween month. Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage is a psychological thriller and horror. It is really chilling, dark and creepy to read mainly because it focuses on a young child’s disturbing, dark thoughts and behavior. This pick from BookBub is the author’s first novel.
Ok, so it starts off with 7-year old Hanna not speaking and her mother, Suzette, worrying what is wrong with her child. She takes her to several specialists, to find out that there is nothing physically wrong with Hanna. The doctor recommends seeing a psychologist. But, through Hanna’s narrative, it’s like, she enjoys tormenting her mother and doesn’t care to speak. The first time Hanna finally does says something, she freaks her mother out entirely. Question – does the child need a psychologist or an exorcist?
I enjoyed the last book by this author (The Wife Upstairs), so I decided to read another of her titles. This multi-layered psychological thriller by Freida McFadden, called Want To Know a Secret, is set in an upscale neighborhood on Long Island and turned out to have twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and gave me a jolt. This 399-page novel is a quick read because you won’t want to put it down! Nice casual read for the summer.
The protagonist, April Masterson, is a housewife who lives with her husband and 7-year-old son in a wealthy, close-knit neighborhood on Long Island. She has a popular YouTube baking show called April’s Sweet Secrets, that she records from the kitchen in her home. She can tell you the secret to making gooey brownies or melt-in your mouth cookies. She is described as young and attractive and seems very open and likeable as a character. The author relays the story via the narrative of different characters, April, her neighbors – Maria and Julie, and April’s mother – Janet.
The novel opens with April recording an episode of her show. While recording, she receives a text message telling her that her son is not where he is supposed to be. April is sent into a panic looking for her son in the back yard and then around the neighborhood before finding him at a new neighbor’s home, next door, at the Coopers. Her son insists that the neighbor, Maria Cooper, told him that April gave him permission to go to her house but April doesn’t believe him. Why would this neighbor lie?
April is relieved that her son is back safe, but the strange texts continue, along with negative posts on her YouTube show revealing things that April thought only she knew about herself. The texter also threatens to release a damaging photo of her if she tells anyone. She worries – who could be doing this and why? She becomes paranoid of everyone and her every move wondering who is doing this.
April is pleased she has a young, new neighbor next door, but as she gets close to her neighbor Maria, April sees a side of her that is concerning. Maria seems to be a very jealous wife and will go to extreme lengths to strike out at someone she does not like or is threatened by. April begins to suspect that Maria may be the one targeting her, however, she’s not sure exactly why.
At this point I was rooting for April, wanting her to find out who was this crazy person doing this to her. But then a twist. The narrative above is relayed via April’s point of view. But then the author switches to one of April’s close friends, who is also a neighbor. It is then that it is revealed to the reader that April is being watched and targeted for a reason. She has committed a crime in the past that her neighbor and friend doesn’t want her to get away with.
On the surface, it seems like the typical high-end neighborhood – mom’s getting kids to school and soccer games, the PTA meetings and fundraisers, husbands going to work. But looks are deceiving and money sure isn’t everything. This book moves quickly with twists and turns, scandals, threats, and a surprise ending. Psychological abuse, multiple realities, murder, deception, and betrayal are just a few things to deal with during this read.
