By Hollie Adams
Publisher: NeWest Press (May 2015)
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
“’Imagine if
you could still do that,’ Tina says, ‘Leave your baby at a hospital or the
monastery or wherever. I might have
done that with Mitchell. Seriously, if I
would have known he’d bite me every time I told him no – I mean really try to
take off a chunk of flesh between his teeth – I would’ve let some nice nuns
give him the strap once in a while.’”
“He may want
to scoop out your eyeballs with scalding soup ladles, but surely he has enough
decency to extend bereavement sympathies.”
“Wouldn’t
human existence be exponentially easier if for every scenario, a set of words
would flash before your eyes offering you just two choices? A fifty-fifty chance to do the right thing,
every time.”
“The priest’s
eulogy contains many generic adjectives – ‘giving,’ ‘sympathetic,’ ‘selfless,’ ‘humble,’
– which probably applies to most dead people, but betray the fact that he didn’t
really know your mother.”
“Your mother
watched Jeopardy! not because she was remotely adept at trivia but because
shouting insults at Alex Trebek in the form of questions rejuvenated her
spirits in a way that a brisk walk or a cup of tea might for someone more sane
than she.”
My Review:
Hollie Adams
has a dark and wicked sense of humor.
Luckily, I do too - so I giggled, chortled, snorted, and laughed aloud
as I read her first published missive.
The protagonist (Carrie) is a snarky and wily woman whose mother has
just died of cancer. You will need to keep in mind that Carrie’s social and
emotional development appears to have arrested in adolescence, most likely during
her surly teen years. She is a
procrastinator with oppositional and passive-aggressive tendencies, so naturally,
she has the expected resultant problems with authority. Carrie has to push boundaries – just because
they are there, and is creatively snide and snarky in a deliciously descriptive
manner – as that is just who she is. As
she uniquely navigates the grieving process, we meet the various layers of her prickly
personality, personal and family history, and current thought process. Her now teen-aged daughter is far more mature
and responsible than Carrie is, or will ever be. She is truly an awful and selfish person –
but honestly, we all are in our own heads.
The imaginative narrative
provided me with hilarious visuals that had me smirking and laughing
aloud. Carrie is thoughtless, selfish, lazy,
and cranky human being. I found her
endlessly entertaining, but imagine she might be an acquired taste for others -
that might need to be taken in small doses.
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