Book Review: Nora and Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Nora and Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

*I received an Advanced Copy due to pre-publication.*

Kindle Edition

Historical Fiction
Reviewed by Leah

Nora and Kettle on GoodReads

This post is going to be different.  And it's going to contain a lot of emotional experiences I've been through and a really personal look into my life.  If you're not willing to be confronted with those facts, or you at all feel uncomfortable with that idea, please don't hesitate to go read a more upbeat, less emotional review.

Because the truth of it is, this book handled very hard issues in a way that was so realistic that it just about destroyed me.

Summary:

Nora Deere was raised to be the classical upper class girl.  Her father is a respected Civil Rights Attorney.  Her mother a beautiful and wealthy lady.  And a little sister who, despite her deafness, is all wildness and enthusiasm for whatever little things life throws her way.

It is all a lie.

Her father is a monster.  And somehow she has to find the strength to be the shield for her sister when her mother's life slips away.  But when things reach their breaking point, there's nothing left but the hysteria.

Kettle is a King.  Co-founder of a band of kids known to be "Lost" who are really just unwanted, forgotten, or left to the streets.  Between him and his brother, Kin, they created the Kings of the subway, and they keep the kids alive as much as possible.  They don't steal and they don't cause problems, and they are free.  Working hard to maintain that freedom, Kettle still has his own personal demons to overcome.

When Kettle chooses to sleep in the alley beneath Nora's window, it will pull the tethers of their lives ever closer until they're faced with challenges and hopes they never knew could exist.

Review:

I've heard that smell is the stronger sense.  The one that can coax memories from a hazy brain.  For me, it's sounds.  Sounds wrap around my throat and strangle me.  Sounds warn like a foghorn in the night.

~ Nora and Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor ~

I know this feeling.  All too well.  The terror that chokes you every time he enters the room.  The tension straightening your back and tightening every muscle in your body, because you know that for whatever order he gives, you'll have to react fast.  The absolute awareness of your surroundings even during something so innocent as a night of watching TV.  Every sound is catalogued and identified.  From the creaks in the floor with every heavy step he takes, to the groaning of his chair as he gets settled.  The snap of his fingers as he demands a refill, ordering about whichever kid is closest.  His voice as he speaks above us to the only person he considers on his level, my mom.  The rest of us keeping our eyes trained on the television, except for those few furtive glances we make excuses for in order to gauge his mood.

I know this terror.  I lived with it for nearly fifteen years.  The hatred, I know better.  And my father wasn't nearly as bad as Nora's.

You see, I was hit, but never beaten.  And it was always as a result of what he'd decided was an actual transgression.  My dad didn't just decide that he needed to take out his anger on someone.  He didn't just decide that his children were walking punching bags, best suited for expelling his rage.  And he definitely never hated any one of us.

Many people tell me that my dad was a great man.  Most days, I just shrug it off because it's not worth it to puncture that perfect image they have left of the man.  But I knew the asshole and I knew his anger issues and I knew his flaws better than any other being.  I knew what it was to have no room left in my soul to fear anything else, because I lived in a constant state of terror of him.  And before I was above the age of six, I knew what it was to hate.

I know Nora's terror.  And despite the fact that our circumstances are nowhere near similar, that emotion is still as raw and real for me as it is for her.

I also know her confusion.  Why can't she just let him go?  Why does she make everything about him?  How could she let him have so much control over her life, even when he's not around?  How was it fair to see the good in him and know it exists, but have every interaction with him confirm why she hates him?

I've also never gotten any of these answers.  Maybe it has something to do with the damage inflicted.  When you're exposed to something like that for so long, it's scarring upon scarring upon scarring.  Until your body feels more like it's made of scar tissue than muscle.  Well, that's what happens to our minds.  We fixate on why they can't be better.  Why they can't control their anger and rage.  And why we had to be the targets.  Why did we have to suffer for it?

People like to say that every girl has daddy issues.  Well, in my case, it's true.  And those are issues that will remain unresolved because, at fifteen, my darkest wish was finally answered: he died.

I thought I hated him before…  Leaving my mother like that, at a time when things were finally turning for the better ... nothing could make me hate him more.

As I said in the beginning of this review, this was very emotional for me as I read through Nora's narrative.  I also often describe it as "destroying me."  And it was at that point that I quoted above that I almost burst into tears at work, because it so accurately described how I'd lived my entire childhood.

This, my friends, is the mark of a truly skillful author.  One who evokes the emotions necessary to the situation.  If you're lucky to have never experienced anything like this firsthand, you will once you read this.  And if you have … consider this review your trigger warning.

I've read several of Ms. Taylor's books before, and always knew that I had to be emotionally prepared before going in.  This … I needed to prepare better for this.  I've read other books that feature some abuse in several forms.  Never have I read anything that brings back that many memories.

Despite what this sounds like, this is actually a very positive review.  When a writer has that power to evoke so many emotions and memories from me, I have to give them every praise the situation demands.  Heart-wrenching as this was to read, I am eternally grateful that I had the opportunity to read Nora and Kettle.

And, to be honest, Kettle hasn't had it easy either.  In fact, he's been in Nora's situation--but with a lot less money--and he's been in a Japanese American internment camp.  And while I also connected with Kettle, and actually liked him better as a narrator, it was my emotional solidarity with Nora that really hit me.

But Kettle is such a great character to get to know.  His realism stands as a stark contrast to Nora's daydreaming.  Though his memories have a tendency to swallow him whole, he uses them as a reminder of what he's been through, and how much things have grown better for him.  Truthfully, without Kettle's mindset, I don't know how much of Nora I could have taken.  Because as much as I identified with her situation, I could still see that she sounded nowhere near an eighteen year old girl.  Especially when it came to her spacing out in a daydream instead of being focused on the very critical present.

All in all, this is the story of two broken people who are trying to learn how to stitch themselves back together while looking after the ones they care about.  And maybe learning to let someone else in long enough to help with the healing.

Book Review: Secrets In The Shadows by T.L. Haddix

Secrets In The Shadows by T.L. Haddix

Streetlight Graphics Publishing © 2010

Kindle Edition

Contemporary Graphic Fiction

Reviewed by Leah

Secrets In The Shadows on Amazon

This book contains graphic material in the form of incest and sexual assault, with a direct focus on the victims as opposed to the actual abuse.  Reader discretion is advised.

Also, this review contains untagged SPOILERS.  You are forewarned.

Summary:

Lauren Taylor Grant has not had it easy.  An incident at the age of sixteen has helped set the groundwork for the rest of her life decisions, but she does not allow it to rule her anymore.  After a failed marriage at a young age, Lauren is blessed with a wonderful little girl and an ex-husband who she was glad to rekindle a friendship with.  Her parents are present and a vital part of her life and support system, as well as her many friends and coworkers in the small town of Leroy, Indiana.

But the past has a way of coming back to haunt.  When an old nightmare resurfaces in the area, it is all Lauren can do to cling to her sanity, and the life she has made.  Her parents' new neighbor, Charlie Clark, adds a new kind of support in this situation.  Just when Lauren thinks might just pass her by, her business is vandalized and another local woman winds up murdered.

It doesn't take long for everyone to realize that this is personal, and it all revolves around two girls and one summer thirteen years ago.  The summer Margie Vernon disappeared.

Characters:

Margie Vernon was a seventeen year old with the most perverted chip on her shoulder ever: she was her daddy's plaything.  As a girl with a dream of becoming a teacher, she knew to keep quiet about her ambitions and not make waves, since her parents didn't think a daughter was worth anything other than wife material.  Those ambitions were all ripped to shreds a few months after she turned sixteen and Carl Vernon decided he'd waited long enough to have her.  It left the young teenager with one ambition left: escape.  And she was willing to do any heinous thing that allowed her the chance to run.  Even betray her best friend.

Lauren Taylor Grant is a grown woman with a nice business, beautiful daughter, friendly ex-husband, incredibly supportive parents, and a dark mark in her past that she just can't escape.  The night Margie Vernon stole her car and money was the night her uncle, Carl, tried to rape her.  And all she has to thank for saving herself from that fate is the laced milkshake she poured down the drain.  But the memories are still there, and her confidence in herself isn't always what she hopes it was.

Despite that, Lauren has a good life for herself.  She has a wonderful support group of friends and family, and a life she truly enjoys.  Of course, the entire town is still under the impression that she is missing a man to complete the perfect picture.  And while she's none too short of admirers, it's her parents' new neighbor, Charlie Clark, who evokes the lust that has long been wanting in her relationships.  And when his kindness, patience, and understanding are revealed, it doesn't take long for it to grow into a steady, heady kind of love.  They just … spark.

To be real, Lauren has her demons, but she deals with them.  This is a woman who has been through some rough shit and gets back on her feet every time.  She's strong-willed, but is perfectly willing to accept the help she needs.  Not too proud, but not a doormat, she is a decent enough character to hang around with.  (I still liked her parents better.)

*Not going into a lot of characters here, because there was just too damn many.  Suffice it to say: everyone has their scars, their vices, and a lot of virtues to go around.  And believe me, all of the Leroy town gossip will give you plenty to know about everyone.  Now, how much you actually get to know them…  That's a different story.*

Plot & Setting:

Small town in Indiana.  Yep, I can believe it.  Why?  Because all these people do is gossip and try to play match-maker.  Are you freaking serious?  Since I've never been to Indiana, I can't even tell if this is an accurate portrayal.  But I really hope not, for the sake of people living in small towns anywhere.

The plot--what there was of it--was all over the damn place.  This is mostly due to the free-hand head-hopping that goes on.  So that several characters literally take you all over the damn place.

From the publisher-provided blurb, a reader might deduce that there is a murder mystery within this book and that is the focus of the story.  The blurb is lying.  What you get in this novel is nothing short of some personal demons and the activities of a small town.  That's it.  There is also a slow-moving romance that I was fairly okay with, but was so obvious in its occurrence that you have literally no surprises here.  And I mean that.  In this entire book, the reader is given a snapshot into everything through the various forms of narration that you are not at all surprised when things happen.  Which, for me, did not lead to an enjoyable reading experience.

Writing Style:

I hated it.  And I should have loved it.

My favorite style to read is Third Person Limited.  This means you are outside of the heads of the characters, but you sort of get one narrator at a time.  Unlike when you get what everyone is doing at once, it focuses on one person.

Well, technically speaking, that's exactly what this book was: Third Person Limited.  Well, I guess that means I should define the narrative style I love to Third Person Intimate, because TPL in this book did not allow me to connect to a single character.

It felt like all telling and no showing to me.  We didn't see anything through any of the characters' eyes, only were told how they interacted with their environment.  And that made for a jarring reading experience that I really didn't like.

Of course, what really got me as far as the writing was the head-hopping.  Too many narrators!  Every time I turned around, it seemed like, another insignificant person was taking the lead and taking us around on a daily routine that was both pointless and uninformative.  (Especially when the entire bloody town is more concerned with playing match-maker over everything else--including a murder.)  There was a lot of filler in here that just irritated.  Granted, I can see why some scenes were done that way, but all in all, there were several other ways to do it without introducing us to three more narrators that we couldn't give a crap about.

End rant.

Overall Opinion:

There are some books and readers who just do not gel.  This book and I did not gel.  Whether because of the head-hopping or the characters themselves, I'm not sure.  Neither did themselves any favors and the writing was very 'tell, not show' for me.  While I found it a solid 'okay' read, it wasn't anything that I'd like to reread.

But there were a few aspects of it that I liked, and this is probably going to be a bit of a spoiler (you're forewarned): Charity/Margie turned her life around.  Knowing what this type of abuse does to a person--especially in a private setting--I really loved that it showed the victim coming out of the experience more aware, with her own goals and dreams, and becoming an independent individual who is relatively normal, given the circumstances.  Charity is a far cry from the victim she once was, and that makes all the difference to someone who knows what incest/assault can do to the psyche of someone you love.

Another thing I have to admire this book for is that it doesn't shy away from giving you the cold hard facts.  Judging on my own small pool of knowledge, I'm sickened to say that I believe assault by family members happens a lot more often than society believes or even wants to admit.  But it does happen, and it is harmful.  It causes a lifetime of self-percieved inadequacies to build up in an individual, yet that doesn't mean they can't go on to have a completely normal life.  Which, perhaps, is why it does shock most people when they learn someone they've known for years was molested as a child, because they don't appear to be a stereotypical victim.  The weight of their experience, while lending heavily to the person they've become, has not controlled every aspect of their life.  People do break free of the 'victim stigma' and go on to lead lives that are relatively normal--even without therapy.

The thing this book does, though, is give you a look at only two separate possibilities as far reactions to this type of thing.  And I'm glad it did.  I'm glad that it shows you that certain people handle this in certain ways, and a lot of that has to do with the support system the victim experiences.  Whether their call for help is met with denial--which, sadly, it so often is--or whether they have the support of those around them and they get the help they need.  It is surprising how even the smallest things can have the biggest effect on a person, and sometimes the best help they receive occurs years after the abuse has stopped.  Basically, the realism of the subject matter are what really made me respect this book.

*Fun fact, I wrote all of this from end to beginning.*