The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson. Random House, 2012. Print length: 465 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...both vivid and chilling." Amazon customer rating: 4 1/2 stars (29 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled."Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer 'stolen' to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return. Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master’s Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love." - Publisher.
Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea, by Morgan Callan Rogers. Viking, 2012. Print length: 320 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "Florine - rendered first-person in confiding, colloquial prose - isn't always loveable; she's obstinate and angry and teenager-rude. But Red Ruby Heart makes her real." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (1 review). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When her mother disappears during a weekend trip, Florine Gilham's idyllic childhood is turned upside down. Until then she'd been blissfully insulated by the rhythms of family life in small town Maine: watching from the granite cliffs above the sea for her father's lobster boat to come into port, making bread with her grandmother, and infiltrating the summer tourist camps with her friends. But with her mother gone, the heart falls out of Florine's life and she and her father are isolated as they struggle to manage their loss. Both sustained and challenged by the advice and expectations of her family and neighbors, Florine grows up with her spirit intact. And when her father's past comes to call, she must accept that life won't ever be the same while keeping her mother vivid in her memories. A captivating debut, introducing a spirited young heroine coming of age in coastal Maine during the early 1960s." - Publisher.Start Shooting, by Charlie Newton. Doubleday, 2012. Print length: 322 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...firecracker crime novel..." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (21 reviews). Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"Officer Bobby Vargas is hard-edged but idealistic, a Chicago cop who stands at the epicenter of a subterranean plot that will have horrific ramifications for both himself and the entire city. Twenty-five years earlier, a gruesome murder rocked the unforgiving streets of Four Corners. Now, suddenly, a dying Chicago paper is running a serial exposé on new evidence in that old case, threatening to implicate Bobby and his older brother, Ruben - a decorated, high-ranking detective and cop - prince of the streets. The smear campaign stirs up decades-old bad blood, leading the Vargas brothers down an increasingly twisted and terrifying path, where the sins of the past threaten to destroy what remains of the truth." - Publisher.Bond Girl, by Erin Duffy. William Morrow, 2012. Print length: 309 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...a character you really, truly root for...a sparkling debut, smart and snappy..." Amazon customer rating: 4 stars (19 reviews). Kindle edition $11.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"When other little girls were dreaming about becoming doctors or lawyers, Alex Garrett set her sights on conquering the high-powered world of Wall Street. And though she's prepared to fight her way into an elitist boys' club, or duck the occasional errant football, she quickly realizes she's in over her head when she's relegated to a kiddie-size folding chair with her new moniker - Girlie - inscribed in Wite-Out across the back. No matter. She's determined to make it in bond sales at Cromwell Pierce, one of the Street's most esteemed brokerage firms. Fast-paced, funny, and thoroughly addictive, Bond Girl will leave you cheering for Alex: a feisty, ambitious woman with the spirit to stand up to the best (and worst) of the boys on the Street - and ultimately rise above them all." - Publisher.The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus. Knopf, 2012. Print length: 304 p. NOVEL. EW's slant: "...for those who can stomach it, Marcus' novel crackles with vicious intelligence and makes incisive statements about language and family." Amazon customer rating: Kindle edition $12.99. Text-to-Speech: Enabled.
"A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children’s speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction. With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents’ sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn’t so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition. Both morally engaged and wickedly entertaining, a gripping page-turner as strange as it is moving, this intellectual horror story ensures Ben Marcus’s position in the first rank of American novelists. " - Publisher._______________________
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