Category: Challenge 2017

Book Review: The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman by Mindy Mejia

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hattie

Everyone thought they knew Hattie Hoffman. When she was murdered, they found out just how wrong they were.

About the Book

Publisher’s description: Seventeen-year-old Hattie Hoffman is a talented actress, loved by everyone in her Minnesotan hometown. So when she’s found stabbed to death on the opening night of her school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of the community. Local sheriff Del Goodman, a good friend of Hattie’s dad, vows to find her killer, but the investigation yields more secrets than answers; it turns out Hattie played as many parts offstage as on. Told from three perspectives: Del’s, Hattie’s high school English teacher and Hattie herself, The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman tells the story of the real Hattie, and what happened that final year of school when she dreamed of leaving her small town behind . . .

My Review (spoiler free)

“The first and most important lesson in acting is to read your audience. Know what they want you to be and give it to them.”

Hattie has ambitions to be an actress and leave behind her small-town upbringing for life in the big city. She’s so used to acting a part that she has begun to believe she can control everyone around her; that she can see how everything will unfold, as if in a play. The trouble is the other people involved don’t know they’re just characters in her play; they don’t know it’s not for real. It’s what has caused her to end up dead.

Told from the perspective of three different characters, including Hattie herself, the reader gradually learns more about the events leading up to Hattie’s death and, eventually, the reason she was murdered. As the novel progresses, the unintended consequences of Hattie’s manipulations become apparent to the reader, in a way they were not to Hattie, providing a number of plausible possible suspects for her murder. The reveal at the end brings the story to a satisfying conclusion. Personally, I didn’t feel that Hattie came across as purely manipulative but rather as a needy person, seeking approbation and acceptance by others and feeling the only way she can achieve this is by being whatever they want or need her to be – perfect daughter, perfect girlfriend, perfect student. In this way, her premature death becomes extra sad.

This is a really well-written, satisfying psychological thriller (originally published as Everything You Want Me To Be).

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Quercus Books, in return for an honest review.

Book facts: 352 pages, publication date 9th March 2017

My rating: 5 (out of 5)

In three words: Suspenseful, satisfying, enthralling

Try something similar…Secrets of Southern Girls by Haley Harrigan

To buy a copy of The Last Act of Hattie Hoffman, click here

mindyAbout the Author

Mindy Mejia is a Minnesota author whose debut novel, The Dragon Keeper, was published by Ashland Creek Press in 2012. Besides the occasional book review or blog entry, Mindy focuses on the novel and she writes what she likes to read: contemporary, plot-driven books that deliver both entertainment and substance.  Author Website

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Review: The Good People by Hannah Kent

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good

Tragic tale of desperation, superstition and fear in 19th century Ireland

About the Book

Publisher’s description: The Good People is Hannah Kent’s startling new novel about absolute belief and devoted love. Terrifying, thrilling and moving in equal measure, this long-awaited follow-up to Burial Rites shows an author at the height of her powers.

My Review

Still mourning the death of her daughter, newly widowed Nora finds herself alone and trying to care for her grandson, Michael. She cannot understand what has happened to turn him from a healthy child into one who cannot speak or walk. Ashamed and fearful of what neighbours will say about the afflicted child, Nora hires a young girl, Mary, to help care for him out of the public gaze. However, rumours about the circumstances of her husband’s death and the presence of an ‘unnatural’ child soon start to circulate. Nora becomes convinced Micheál is a ‘changeling’ – a child of the fairies or ‘Good People’ substituted for the real Michael. In the hope of restoring what she believes is her ‘real’ grandson, she enlists the help of Mary and the local wise-woman, Nance, embarking on a path that will have far-reaching consequences for them all.

The author creates an evocative and moving picture of what life was like for people eking out a subsistence existence in 19th century Ireland where famine and homelessness was only ever a short distance away: a cow that stops giving milk; a crop that fails; inclement weather; illness or bereavement.

‘They’re worried about the butter. About being forced on the road. About having no money to pay the rent with. About neighbours turning on them, wishing them ill. Wishing sickness and death on them.’

How it can lead to a community seeking answers in the supernatural – in this case, the Good People or fairies who dwell amongst them and who it is believed can bring good or bad luck. The story of Nora and Michael shows the desperate actions to which people can be driven by grinding poverty, ignorance and fear and the hatred and suspicion of anyone who is different, like Nance Roche, or afflicted with physical or mental illness, like Michael.   Nora is a woman driven mad by grief and although she does some very terrible things, she never loses the reader’s sympathy completely. The fact that the story is inspired by actual cases adds to the sense of realism.

I felt the author created a fully realised picture of a community of that time and its rituals – the customs associated with wakes and burials, gatherings around the well or at the blacksmith’s forge.  I thought she captured the lilt and rhythm of the dialect without trespassing into “Oirishness”. There was some wonderfully lyrical writing, particularly descriptions of nature:

‘December arrived and bled the days of sunlight, while the nights grew bitter, wind-rattled.’

‘She thought of how , in the valley, the people would soon pluck the yellow flowers for the goodness they drew from the sun, pulling primrose and marsh marigold and buttercups, rubbing them on the cows’ udders to bless the butter in them, placing them on doorways and doorsteps, those thresholds where the unknown world could bleed into the known, flowers to seal the cracks from where luck could be leached…’

I have not read Hannah Kent’s first novel, Burial Rites, but on the strength of this book, it will definitely be going on my TBR list.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Pan MacMillan, in return for an honest review.

Book facts: 320 pages, publication date 9th February 2017

My rating: 5 (out of 5)

In three words: Emotional, lyrical, enthralling

Try something similar…The Signal Flame by Andrew Krivak (see my review here)

About the Author

Hannah Kent’s debut novel, the international bestseller Burial Rites was translated into 28 languages. It won the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year, the Indie Awards Debut Fiction Book of the Year and the Victorian Premier’s People’s Choice Award, amongst others. Burial Rites was also shortlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize), the Guardian First Book Award, the Stella Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. It is currently being adapted to film. Hannah co-founded the Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings, where she is currently publishing director. The Good People is Hannah’s second novel. Author Website