All posts tagged: domestic abuse

Wise and emotionally intelligent debut about the sixth-sense between sisters, cycles of violence, mothers & daughters, dissonance about ‘going back’ to childhood, more Hanna Halperin chats about SOMETHING WILD

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By Leslie Lindsay A troubling and searing debut from a talented writer about the traumas and darkness of a family, sisterhood, and cycles of violence–in all forms. WRITERS INTERVIEWING WRITERS ALWAYS WITH A BOOK Leslie Lindsay & Hanna Halperin in Conversation A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hanna Halperin‘s stories have been published in the Kenyon Review, n+1, New Ohio Review, Joyland, and others. She has taught fiction workshops at Grub Street in Boston and worked as a domestic violence counselor. About SOMETHING WILD: SOMETHING WILD (Viking, 6/22/21) by Hanna Halperin in one of those family dramas you can’t help but want to look, but dear God, don’t show the whole thing. SOMETHING WILD is visceral and challenging in scope and theme, covering such topics of domestic violence, secrets, jealousy, anger, repulsion, horrifying truths, slippery and elusive adolescent desires, and more. It’s a bit coming-of-age with a present-day story. Told in alternating POVs, adult sisters, Nessa and Tanya leave their respective lives and travel to the Boston suburbs where they are to help their mother, Lorraine, pack up and move …

Wednesdays with Writers: What if your neighbor and her children went missing and there were no clues as to where or why? That’s what Jessica Strawser explores in her sophomore novel, NOT THAT I COULD TELL, set in real-life Yellow Springs, Ohio, plus it’s a March 2018 Book-of-the-Month selction

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Leslie Lindsay  Small town mystery of a missing woman and her children has everyone on edge and the truth that is revealed is even darker than anyone could imagine.  NOT THAT I COULD TELL (March 27, 2018) is Strawer’s sophomore novel, and it’s certainly no slump. I feel like this title shows a significant growth on her part, in her astute suburban politics, page-turning goings-on, and her down-to-earth, girl-friend like narrative style. NOT THAT I COULD TELL IS darker than ALMOST MISSED YOU, but not a thriller, per se, yet I raced through to the dark and carefully plotted end. Just Named Book of the Month Selection for March 2018!  Kristin Kirkland seems to have everything together. She’s cute and well-liked, going out of her way to help other mommies at preschool, volunteering in the classroom, and those twins–Abby and Aaron! But when she and the kids go missing, the tightly knit community of Yellow Springs, Ohio is on edge. Where did she go and why didn’t she tell anyone? Not to mention she’s estranged from her soon-to-be ex-husband, who is an affable …

Wednesdays with Writers: What if you were all alone and had cancer? Who might take care of your children when you’re gone? Sally Hepworth explores this, as well as social anxiety, domestic violence in THE MOTHER’S PROMISE. Oh, and Bali, new motherhood, character development…

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By Leslie Lindsay  A powerful and emotionally riveting portrait of what it means to be a family, A MOTHER’S PROMISE is poignant, breath-taking, and authentic, perhaps Hepworth’s best to date.  I flew through this book, not because the topics touched upon are light-hearted; but because the writing is so smooth, so effortless, so authentic and engaging. But be warned: if domestic abuse (including rough sex), miscarriage, cancer, and social anxiety are triggers for you, by all means, select this book with caution. Still, Hepworth does a remarkable job of presenting these situations in a veiled attempt so that we get the gist of what’s happening, but don’t have to relive every raw moment with her characters. Alice is a 40 year old single mother raising her daughter, fifteen year old Zoe on her own; Zoe’s father isn’t exactly in the picture. But then Alice gets sick and is given a grim prognosis, she is befriended by her R.N. and social worker who attempt (sometimes erroneously) to correct the “problem.” THE MOTHER’S PROMISE is searingly honest, emotional, and …