A Quick But Sobering Read

Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget by Sarah Hepola (Grand Central Publishing, 2015, 240pp.)

For most of her life, Texas-born writer Sarah Hepola used alcohol to combat her painful shyness and meager sense of self-worth. She started drinking at age 12 and didn’t stop until decades later, when it threatened to ruin her life, friendships, and career. Her memoir mostly covers the memory blackouts she suffered, but also confronts societal double-standards about drinking. While some “issue-driven” memoirs lapse into preachiness as they strive to push their agenda, Blackout has surprisingly few of these moments. For the most part, it’s a genuinely honest account of how the author dealt with her blackouts, with added commentary on how alcohol affects issues like consent. A quick but sobering read that gives the non-drinking public a glimpse into the mentality of alcoholism.

Seriously, Don't Bother

Source: Author Website

Hanover House by Brenda Novak (Brenda Novak, Inc., 2015, 244pp.)

Twenty years ago, Evelyn Talbot was raped and brutalized by her high school boyfriend and left for dead. After years of therapy, she’s now a forensic psychiatrist who studies the psychopathic mind. Her latest achievement is the opening of a new facility in Hilltop, Alaska, where she can study the worst humanity has to offer. Not surprisingly, there’s resistance from the locals, who protest her facility’s arrival by defacing its buildings. When she reports the damage, it brings her into contact with good-looking Sergeant Amarok, an Alaskan state trooper. Although Evelyn feels that her early-life trauma ruined her for romantic relationships, she is surprised when her interactions with Amarok awaken long-dead feelings of physical desire. Is the time finally right for her to move on from her tortuous past? Possibly. Except what she doesn’t know is that her past, i.e. ex-boyfriend Jasper, is close behind.

Hanover House is a short prequel that serves as the foundation for a new romantic suspense/thriller series. After finishing it, however, all I can say is that I hope the rest of the series is better, because this founding installment stinks. Okay, so I do have to give Novak credit for her idea: Hanover House has a lot of elements to make an interesting story. For example, Evelyn’s desire to pursue a rewarding career conflicts with her worry-stricken mother’s desire to keep her safe. Evelyn also desires to have healthy romantic relationships, despite the crippling intimacy issues that stem from her early trauma. Oh, and let’s not forget the angry Alaskan locals who fear for their families’ safety, despite the research breakthroughs that might occur at the facility. Although that’s just three items in a list, it’s quite a bit of ground to cover—and a novella certainly isn’t the proper medium one should use to explore that much material. However, that’s just what we get. At 244 pages, Hanover House covers a novel’s worth of story ideas with the brevity of a “serial killer of the week” episode you might see in a weekly crime series. As a result, it’s more of a shallow preview than a proper work on its own. Add to this the story’s unremarkable cast of characters, and an anti-climactic ending, and you have one poorly written excuse for a story.

An Underwhelmingly Lackluster Reading Experience

Source: Author Website

Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin’s Press, 2015, 448pp.)

Dr. Eric Parrish has a lot going for him. The psychiatric unit he runs at a Philadelphia hospital has recently been ranked second in the nation, and he is universally adored by his colleagues, patients, and staff. In addition to his work at the hospital, he also sees patients privately. When one of these patients, a troubled teen named Max, begins a downward spiral following the death of his grandmother, Eric develops a fatherly interest in the young man’s welfare. Unfortunately, Max’s problems soon become his own, and before he knows it, Eric finds himself implicated in a shocking crime that could end his professional career. With mediocre writing and cardboard-thin characters, Every Fifteen Minutes makes for an underwhelmingly lackluster reading experience: great for passing the time, but hardly worth mentioning to your friends.

A Respectful, Sobering Portrait of the April 27th Storms

Source: Author Website

What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley by Kim Cross (Atria Books, 2015, 320pp.)

During a three-day period in late April 2011, a string of tornadoes tore across the Southeast and killed over 300 people. In this chilling chronicle of the disaster, the author pours her heart into describing the devastation wrought by the storms, and in the process, shows how so many lives were changed, some beyond all recognition. While there are some descriptions of death here that are rather graphic, the author refuses to cross the line into sensationalism, and instead focuses on the overall emotional effect these tornadoes had on the region. The work ends on a note that is sobering, but cautiously optimistic, making it a suitable read for those looking to commemorate victims of the April 27th storms.

A Heck of a Page-Turner with a Clichéd Ending

Source: Author Website

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead Books, 2015, 336pp.)  

Stressed, unemployed, failure: these three words describe the current state of Rachel Watson's sorry life. Besides drinking herself into oblivion and stalking her now happily remarried ex-husband, one of Rachel's few guilt-free pleasures is to ride the train into London and make up stories about the people she sees from her compartment window. Two of the people she regularly sees are a pair of young marrieds that she calls Jason and Jess. Jason and Jess are devoted. Romantic. Successful. And they would have remained that way, had Rachel's fantasy not been completely ruined by the sight of Jess, kissing a strange man in her back yard.

Hours later, Rachel wakes up hungover, with no memory of how she got home. Then she sees the news: a young suburban housewife has gone missing. And she looks an awful lot like Jess. Did Rachel do something terrible? Something that Sober Rachel wouldn't even dream of, but that Drunk Rachel would?

The beginning of this mystery/thriller is quite promising. It starts off with the haunting image of a pile of old clothes discarded by the train tracks. It continues at a gripping pace, exploring not only Rachel's POV, but also that of two other women: Megan (the missing housewife) and Anna (the woman who broke up Rachel's marriage). Unfortunately, while The Girl on the Train tries to pass off as the next Gone Girl, it only delivers half of what it promises. While Gone Girl's Big Reveal completely turns the missing persons genre on its head, this book sweeps to a close with an ending that is more simplistic and cliché than original. However, despite its faulty ending, Girl on the Train is still one heck of a page-turner, and will surely appeal to Gone Girl fans desperately looking for the next best thing.