Review of Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

 

For better or worse, guns are as much a part of American culture as the Fourth of July and apple pie.  The debate over gun regulation is one of the most heated in the history of this country.  One of the unfortunate offspring off American gun culture has been mass school shootings, shattering the innocence of young lives and ripping families apart in the most heartbreaking ways.

Only Child by Rhiannon Navin explores a Sandy Hook-like school shooting and its aftermath from the unique perspective of one of the six year old survivors.  From the opening pages, when Zach Taylor hides in a closet with his teacher and the rest of his first-grade classmates, the author draws us in with his simple yet profoundly insightful perspective on the events taking place.  As the adults around him fall apart, Zach retreats into another closet- in his brother's room, where he processes his emotions through painting and reading a popular children's book series.  The author tells an unfortunately all too familiar tale through the eyes of a sensitive, soulful little boy, who readers quickly realize is wise beyond his young years.   

Originally from Bremen, Germany, Rhiannon Navin came to New York City and pursued a career in advertising.  Now a wife and mom living outside of New York, Only Child is her first novel.

Only Child is an exciting debut from a first-time novelist.  Navin took an extremely difficult topic and handled it with great care and compassion, avoiding the potential landmines of over-emphasis on actual violence or political debates.  Her focus on Zach's family as a microcosm of the community around them, provided an intimate portrait into the lives of victims and survivors of gun violence and the use of a six year old narrator provided a refreshingly beautiful perspective.  There were times when Zach thought and said things that were so profound that it took my breath away.  When Zach's dad explains what the word sympathy means to him, he responds by saying, "I only noticed how Andy acted bad all the time.   That he was being mean to me.  A lot of times I didn't like him because of that, and I didn't try to feel the sympathy with him.  Maybe Andy wouldn't have acted bad a lot of times if he could have noticed that we were feeling the sympathy with him.  I don't know."  Many adults couldn't figure out the things that Zach did, especially the adults in his family.  But what made him so unique, is that the author still managed to remind us that he was actually a child with all the accompanying behaviors, including tantrums, bedwetting, and clinging to a favorite stuffed animal.  Ironically, that is what made Zach's voice so compelling.  While we as adults can't sit down and agree on how to keep first-graders from getting massacred at school, a six-year old figured out how to heal his family, and spread that healing to his community.  If we could all only see the world through the beauty and innocence of a child's eyes.

Review of Isolation by Denise R. Stephenson

Isolation by Denise R. Stephenson is featured as part of a Premier Virtual Authors Book Tours blog tour and is also a part of a Rafflecopter giveaway on the Contests and Giveaways page of this blog.  The novel is set in future apocalyptic America and while it can be categorized as science fiction, the epidemic that it predicts has its roots in all too real events.

The novel opens with a series of vignettes of random strangers who are infected with various bacterial infections, whether from food, contact with insects, or swimming in contaminated waters.  The horrifying headlines of mad cow disease, MRSA, E.Coli and other outbreaks that have scared populations worldwide in recent years, reaches pandemic proportions, killing millions and forcing extreme measures from government to contain the spread of infection.  Martial law, food shortages, looting of stores, and civil unrest break out amid increasing periods of forced quarantines in which all citizens are forced indoors. Touching one's own face becomes illegal as scientists and government officials try to dampen one of the fastest ways that the infections are spread.   Ultimately, the most extreme measures that can possibly be imagined are implemented:  all touch between humans is forbidden and a permanent Outdoor Ban is implemented, meaning that all citizens are forced inside forever, coming out only to go to ABC's-anti-bacterial centers, if they become infected.  The novel's focus narrows as it alternates between third-person accounts of Maggie, a mother who has bound her infant son's hands, and now raised him in a society where he knows no skin-to-skin touch, Gary, a nurse who lost his fiance to the infections and is now a Sterilizer living and working in an ABC, and Trevor, a disturbed young man with OCD traits who works his way up to Chief Enforcer in the new government.  Their stories are interspersed with a first-person narrative from an unnamed former scientist and professor, now living alone in complete isolation since his wife succumbed to the epidemic, and whose philosophical musings provide a voice of morality and reflection about the extreme government actions, as well as the events that led up to the epidemic.

Denise R. Stephenson lives in Oceanside, California, and has lived in all of the isolated locations of the novel at one time or another.  She has published academically, and also as a member of Attention Deficit Drama, where she has written and produced short plays and monologues.  Isolation is her first novel.  To learn more about her, check out the author Q & A on the Author Interviews page of this blog.

Like many good science fiction novels, Isolation poses serious questions and implications for the path that we are headed on in real life.  The spotlight shines brightly on AgriBiz and its use of GMO's in crops and antibiotics in hormones, as major causes for the rises in tainted food supplies and bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotic treatment.  The role of government in limiting the civil liberties of its citizens under the guise of safety is also examined, echoing today's debates about government curtailing freedom in order to protect citizens from terror threats.  One chance encounter and inadvertent touch turn Maggie and Gary's lives upside down as they begin to question what is happening around them and discover deeply buried yearnings for genuine human contact.  Ms. Stephenson achieves the notable goal of making us question modern practices in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and government, without being overly preachy.  The musings of the anonymous professor provide poignant reminders of all we stand to lose as a society if we continue on our current path.  When he reflects on the use of criminals and the poor as Cleaners-the frightening position of cleaning up contaminated corpses, he reflects that even "back in the day" (pre-epidemic), no one would have questioned the practice.  "Some people never did have the rights the rest of us held so dear.  Some have always been expendable".  Readers will be easily moved to tears when he recounts the story of willing giving his cat Ghost a lethal injection because of fear of being contaminated by the animals touch and licks of affection.  Isolation is a disturbing, chillingly realistic portrayal of our potential future that should give us pause in the midst of our daily lives to reflect on what could happen if current trends are left unchecked.  As the professor said, "while we peered up into the heavens, the rug was pulled out from under us, the rug of oats and wheat and sweet grasses, the carpeting of green we lived on".

Review of Checkmate by Jonathan Patrick

Jonathan Patrick's political thriller is currently on a virtual blog tour with Closed the Cover through December 6.  International terrorism is at the center of the plot and draws on the experiences of the author as a retired U.S. Air Force veteran.

What happens when North Korea, China, and Iran conspire to attack the United States?  The answer is an intricately woven story full of rich details and research, and (for the most part) high developed, believable characters.  I won't give away much in this review because so many details are so tied into one another that it would risk giving away important plot elements.  Simply put, Checkmate must be read to appreciated.  A synopsis does not do justice to the time and effort obviously made by Mr. Patrick to make the story as realistic as possible.  When the original conspiracy is put forth in a meeting at the Grand Hyatt Taipei in Taiwan, readers can easily become skeptical as to how
 a plan that seems to be so far-fetched could have a chance of being put into motion and actually being successful against the world's greatest superpower.  However, as the author reminds us in the book's trailer, "with most of its once mighty navy staying in port, and the remainder stretched thinly across the globe, America's enemies now have different words to describe America: weak...and very vulnerable".  Without taking obvious political sides, the novel shows how austerity measures have weakened America's military might and thus opened a window of opportunity for the country's political enemies to take advantage of chinks in the armor.

Jonathan Patrick is a retired veteran of the United States Air Force who currently lives in the Carolinas with his wife and two children.  His military career took him to various countries around the world and provided him with experiences with several intelligence agencies.  He is working on a second novel.  To learn more about him and his thought process while creating the novel, check out the Q & A with him on the Author Interviews page of this blog.

As I read the novel, I was reminded of the political thrillers from authors such as Tom Clancy.  The details of the missions, submarines, and military and commercial installations was so realistic that it was almost scary to realize how such a sinister plot could actually play out against American interests.  I also really enjoyed the background information provided about many of the key characters, allowing us to see how even some of those who come to be enemies of America, have human interests, feelings, and motivations.  The only character who seemed under developed was Ramon, the totally inept supervisor of Julie and Gina, the brilliant young women who designed the computer software program that is at the heart of the story.  While America faces imminent threat of attack, his only interest seems to lie in the March Madness basketball tournament.  Readers would shudder to think that a supervisor in a key government intelligence agency would be so out of touch.  But then again....

Checkmate has a fast-paced, chilling climax that leaves enough loose ends to warrant a sequel in the near future.  I for one, will be looking forward to it, if only to continue reading about the heroic characters that were introduced to us in this book and see how America recovers and fights back against a conspiracy that spans the globe.

Review of From Rum to Roots by Lloyd G. Francis

Francis, L. (2013).  From Rum to Roots.  San Francisco:  Marway Publishing.

From Rum to Roots is the debut novel from author Lloyd G. Francis.  When I received the invitation to participate in the blog tour through Closed the Cover, I jumped at the opportunity after reading the synopsis, and the book met all of my expectations and then some.

The story begins in 1937 in the Jamaican countryside.  Linton McMann is the gang driver at a rum plantation owned by Major Blaine.  There is an unspoken, well-hidden secret between the two men-Linton is Major's illegitimate son.  Linton has grown up with the resentment and shame of never being publicly acknowledged by his father, despite Major's small efforts to placate him.  After violence erupts in and around the plantation as the workers rise up in an attempt to organize and demand better wages, Linton and his girlfriend Sheila escape to the settlement of Bessanworse where they join an elder named Timothy and become a part of the fledgling Rastafarian community.  Meanwhile in Kingston, 17 year old Daisy has just graduated from high school and is taking over her family's ice business while dealing with friction between her and her sister Callie, as well as her mother's new husband, Wilbur.  After a terrifying episode of abuse that Daisy shamefully keeps secret, she leaves home and marries Miles, a man who turns out to be very abusive.  Daisy leads a miserable, poverty-stricken life with her two young daughters, Janet and Lissette, while Linton struggles with the loss of Sheila and  their unborn child, leaving him to carry a heavy load of guilt and grief.  Linton and Daisy's paths finally cross in America, when they both receive visas and end up in Brooklyn, New York.  They marry and start on a solid path of upward mobility, fulfilling the American dream while attempting to erase their painful memories of Jamaica.  Daisy's dream of sending for Janet and Lissette fade with each passing year as she and Linton have children of their own and the ocean separating them seems to grow too wide to cross.

A native of Oakland, California, Lloyd G. Francis started his career as a photojournalist and ended up covering battles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kashmir.  To learn more about him, check out the interview with him on the Author Interview page of this blog.

From Rum to Roots is a story of an often untold immigrant experience that turns the history of Jamaica and America in the early part of the 20th century into a mesmerizing, richly detailed narrative with characters who are endearing but flawed, and who epitomize the human struggle to survive and overcome daunting odds.  Linton and Daisy must both overcome personal histories full of pain, guilt and hurt, and until they do so,they can never truly find complete happiness, despite the material wealth that they gain as they become financially successful.  Money truly cannot buy happiness, and their attempts to shut out their past causes friction and a nagging sense of emptiness, and for Daisy, it also causes a nearly irreparable rift between herself and the daughters that she left behind in Jamaica.  This story speaks to the very real struggle that many immigrants to this country face-the desire to assimilate into American life without losing their past and heritage completely.  For Daisy and Linton, their heritage does not represent a source of pride and comfort, but instead serves as a reminder of the struggles and tragedies that they left behind.  They must ultimately realize that burying the past does not bury the pain, and that they cannot heal themselves by turning their backs on their roots, but rather by embracing them and drawing on the wisdom and pride of their ancestors and homeland.  From Rum to Roots is a moving, deeply fulfilling novel that will linger in the minds of readers long after the final page is turned.  This is a first-rate effort from a new author and a worthy piece of contemporary fiction that speaks not just to the immigrant experience, but to the general human experience as well.