Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

The SECRET LIFE of ANNA BLANC by Jennifer Kincheloe – Mystery Thriller, Female Sleuth, Victorian

An intractable and pampered debutante with plenty of pluck turns detective in Jennifer Kincheloe’s award-winning debut The Secret Life of Anna Blanc.

The year is 1907 in Los Angeles. Anna Blanc may be privileged and beautiful, but the one thing she lacks is freedom. Escaping from her possessive father is more difficult than she thinks since she keeps getting caught in humiliating circumstances, which only taints her social status. Regardless, Anna has a mind of her own and determines to get involved in one area that is entirely unladylike: police work.

Finding an ad in a local paper, Anna finagles her way into an assistant matron position at the LAPD. While on her first assignment at a local brothel, Anna overhears a conversation between of a police officer and a coroner as they examine the corpse of a prostitute. Although the men rule the young woman’s death a suicide, Anna is convinced that the cause of death is murder, especially when she learns that the harlot’s death is just one in a string of murders.

Anna commences undercover investigations, which she keeps under tight wraps. In the meantime, the LAPD sets up a sting operation to catch a rape fiend. Anna volunteers, working alongside the handsome but unpredictable Joe Singer. While romance seems to brew between the unlikely pair, Anna’s father makes plans for her to marry a wealthy banker, Edgar Wright. Amid the strange love triangle, Anna hopes to nab both the rape fiend and prostitute murderer. Whether or not she can convince the LAPD of her sleuthing capabilities before another murder occurs remains to be seen.

Kincheloe does a killer job keeping her audience hooked from one page to the next as her protagonist heroine whose insular life evolves as she faces perils of one kind or other. Kincheloe’s highly-developed cast includes only a handful of supporting characters while the bulk of her cast is made up of colorful foils and red herrings, coming in every shape, size, sex, and demeanor imaginable that befits an early 20th-century setting.

Tight sentence structures dripping with rich metaphorical descriptions and hyperbole laced with sarcasm, wit, and humor grace the pages of this award-winning debut novel. Scenes heavily peppered with romantic tension, sexual innuendoes, replete with unremitting twists and turns shift between characters resulting in a mighty fine read.

A top-rate novel “inspired by police matron Alice Stebbins Wells, who in 1910 became the first woman police officer in Los Angeles,” The Secret of Anna Blanc has all the elements of going beyond the bookshelf and onto the Silver Screen.

March 5, 2018
BUILDING MR. DARCY by Ashlinn Craven – Contemporary Romance, Fantasy, Clean & Wholesome

Two software developers, Max Taggart and Zoe Bunsen, want to create the perfect artificially intelligent companion. Zycorp needs this project to be successful, or their floundering AI department will be dissolved; however, while Max is a man with a plan, Zoe is a woman with a serious book crush on the character chosen to embody their AI.

Zoe has grown up loving Mr. Darcy, the hero in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. From their chance meeting to their continuous jostling for power, Max and Zoe find working together almost impossible. While Zoe wants a Darcy with human-like reactions, Max wants a finished product ready for release by the deadline. Their constant bickering coupled with their shared office creates the perfect tension for romance. But finding the balance in Mr. Darcy and the balance in their own personal lives may be more than these two can handle.

From Max and Zoe’s chivalrous first meeting to their conflicting personalities, Building Mr. Darcy has the feel of a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. Like her counterpoint Elizabeth Bennet, Zoe is a smart woman in a man’s world. Her free-thinking spirit may be perfect for software development, but her gender makes it difficult for her to succeed in Zycorp where schedules and deadlines keep getting in her way. Her Pygmalion need to create an almost “boyfriend-like” interaction with Darcy arises from her completely disastrous love life, and while her neediness differs from the original feel of Elizabeth Bennet, it helps set Zoe apart from her metafictional doppelganger and give her a slice of her own personality.

Max has the same no-nonsense attitude of Fitzwilliam Darcy, but he is far removed from the affluently born romantic heartthrob of generations of women. Max is a self-made man with a sketchy family. However, the issues of the original novel, love, friends, family obligations, and subtle human interactions, remain the central focus of this novel. These complete opposites with their ever-present Darcy/Elizabeth arguments and eventual character growth harken back to the well-loved, dog-eared classic that makes their relationship so timeless.

Irish-born award-winning romance author Ashlinn Craven lives in the shadow of the Alps writing stories about real-life heroes and heroines, people with actual jobs and paychecks. In Craven’s novels, the world doesn’t stop just because two people fall in love. With their trademark touch of geekiness, these novels are heartfelt, uplifting, and realistic.

March 5, 2018
FROM the SHADOWS by KB Shaw – YA, Science Fiction, Action/Adventure

In the tradition of H. G. Wells and Isaac Asimov, K.B. Shaw’s From the Shadows piques the reader’s imagination. In the world where Cameron Rush, a shy, geeky boy from Wisconsin, and Rosa Costas, the bright, sassy daughter of a New Mexico ranch foreman, live, twenty-first-century technology makes a quantum leap and changes the nature of human experience.

Sounds amazing, right? This new technology could take tailgating to a new level. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?

Only, Robert K. Merton’s law of unintended consequences still prevail. So, there is that…

Fifteen-year-old Cameron and Rosa have never met in person. However, they know each other well, as they met in a chat room, and talk daily on their multiComs. The couple takes GundTech’s multiCom technology — computers, without cameras, that capture images and display them in a way that allows virtual eye contact among users—for granted. It’s been around forever, well, at least ten years. They also take for granted their personal AIs.

A multiCom computer’s artificial intelligence (known as its AI) allows it to think, have personalities, experience emotions, and develop self-images. Each computer’s AI is unique and requires that the user demonstrate respect and courtesy to get a requested response. Cameron and Rosa understand this — as the rules of operation were clearly explained in the operating instructions. Therefore, they are never surprised when Sam and Vee, their respective multiCom AIs, sometimes add their two bits worth during conversations.

But they never expect to meet the AIs in person.

Unbeknownst to them, Cameron and Rosa were preordained centuries ago to play an integral part in the technological evolution triggered when GundTech’s mysterious creator introduces the Interactive Holographic Transmitter. With the IHT, time and space can be manipulated enabling humans, alone or collectively, to touch, see, hear, and ultimately, smell, and taste events as they happen.

Throughout this complex, fascinating tale, Shaw manages to keep the teen protagonists real and likable. They are “in touch” with their families, community, and school; they tease, flirt, grumble and complain, and impress the reader with their spirit and ingenuity.

In this well-crafted book, the amalgam of speculative fiction with a hint of Gothic eeriness works very well. What happens, to whom, how, and why is the stuff of possibility thinking. Fast-paced and engaging, with no loose ends, From the Shadows provides readers no opportunities to rest or close the book. Here’s a YA novel that’s a good read for any age.

March 2, 2018
WIZZY WIG: THANATOS RISING, BOOK 2 by Tiffany Pitts – Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Humor
Have you ever wondered what might happen if you unknowingly ripped a hole in the space-time continuum? Jake and Kix find out firsthand just how much madness can ensue when this exact conundrum befalls them in Wizzy Wig: Thanatos Rising Book Two by Tiffany Pitts, a fun and quirky Sci-Fi romp that fans of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams are sure to enjoy.

The evening begins innocently enough when Jake invites Kix over with a pizza to help him solve a wave function experiment. While Kix relaxes on the couch, Jake turns his attention to an experiment he’s come up with based on the idea of Schrödinger’s cat, except instead of a cat in a box, Jake’s version uses a pizza in a box. For those unfamiliar with the concept of Schrödinger’s cat, this thought experiment posits that an unobservable cat in a box is simultaneously alive and dead—essentially the cat can exist in any or no state at all. Jake hypothesizes that an unobservable pizza in a box is inherently similar—it could exist in any state as well—and thus can have its toppings changed if one knows the right math—which he does.

Jake turns his attention to his computer and does his best not to be distracted by Kix’s (striped) tights and his massive crush on her while he attempts to alter the toppings on the unseen pizza in the box. He succeeds. And the world as they know it is altered in incredible, yet difficult to see ways. Soon, Kix is on the run for her life from the genuinely creepy and disturbing Brad, a far more sinister version of her neighbor Thad, who has crossed over from another version of reality.

Enter Thanatos, Dark Lord of the Underworld, otherwise known as Toesy. Toesy is not your normal housecat. Firstly he is part demon, secondly, he has thumbs that help him open doors (a souvenir from a previous experiment of Jake’s in book one) and lastly, he’s got Executive Wartime Consigliore Steve…the voice inside his head who helps him strategize his battles. As a cat, Toesy is a natural ‘boundary walker’ and quickly realizes what the other characters do not—that the hole Jake ripped in the space-time continuum by solving his wave experiment has caused the distinct versions of the multiverse to overlap and merge in terrifying ways.

Wizzy Wig is told through the shifting perspectives of its diverse cast of characters, some of whom are alternate versions of each other. Multiple storylines that may at first be confusing come together in the end to create a complex story set in the heart of modern Seattle. Readers should note that this isn’t the type of novel one can halfway pay attention to. Wizzy Wig requires all of a reader’s attention. We are dealing with the space-time continuum after all and characters do not only cross from one reality to another in easily tracked ways. The realities themselves overlap and merge at times, and characters may appear as one or the other version of themselves or even change personalities altogether.

Pitts has crafted a fun, complex, modern Sci-Fi novel in which nothing is off limits. Multiverses exist, murderous banana spiders find their way into apartment buildings, sugar gliders seek their freedom, readers find themselves in the mind of a sociopath, and the boy who just may get the girl, if they can both survive long enough. Wizzy Wig: Thanatos Rising is an entertaining and quirky Sci-Fi novel, and while there are some punctuation errors throughout, it doesn’t detract from the story. Readers will find clever and resourceful heroes worth cheering for in this second installment of the Thanatos Rising series.
February 27, 2018
AMASKAN’S BLOOD, Book 1 of the Boahim Series by Raven Oak – Coming of Age, Sword & Sorcery, Epic Fantasy, YA
In Amaska, residents serve Anur, the God of Justice. Amaskans, men and women, train with a rigor akin to the Spartans to be in peak physical strength and to be ever alert for the presence of danger. Yes, the Amaskans kill, but only to right a wrong as directed by the “Order.” They take no delight in carnage, but they will not stand idly by when someone is suffering an injustice. Knives are their weapon of choice. When not in combat, they identify themselves proudly with tattoos of circles on their jaws.

The Tribor, on the other hand, are a people void of morals who worship Itova, the Death Goddess, and kill with abandon. Their triangular tattoos are covered by their clothing and there is nothing noble about their instinct to murder.

Then there are the previously warring kingdoms of Alexander and Shad, now existing in a tentative peace, one that rulers hope will be solidified through a royal marriage. A princess of Alexander is betrothed to a prince of Shad. If the union is successful, the two kingdoms hope the brutal conflict over the borderlands will cease once and for all. Unless, of course, the marriage a ruse on the part of one side, the first step in a strategy to conquer. There’s speculation and intrigue as readers speculate who are the allies and who is about to be betrayed.

Locales, readers soon learn, are of great importance in this book and provide insights into the characters. The author includes a map of “Boahim” and we learn much about its “Little Dozen” kingdoms.

As accomplished as the situations and settings are, the real feat of this novel is the depth of characterization. At the heart of this tale are twins, young women who were born five minutes apart. Princess Margaret of Alexander is delicate, genteel, silly, spoiled, and absurdly naïve about political matters. At least her sister, Adelei thinks so.

In contrast, Adelei, raised in Amaska since she was five years of age, moves with the strength and stealth of one who has killed many times for a cause, who puts duty above any earthly pleasure. She has the advantage and the burden of having two fathers, King Leon of Alexander, her biological father, and Master Bredych of Amaska, the man who adopted her when she was five. How she came to leave her kingdom of origin and return a decade later is a riveting, suspenseful tale, part of which is told in flashback. Of course, present events are tied to the past, and Adelei will have to reconcile what has happened to her when she was a child, known then as Iliana, if she is to perform the assigned task of protecting her twin sister.

Princess Margaret is preparing to marry Prince Gamun of Shad, a young man with the worst of reputations (think Joffrey in Game of Thrones), although the dreamy young woman hopes it is only petty gossip maligning her betrothed. In protecting her sister, Adelei is also protecting their shared father, the elderly and ailing king, and the entire Kingdom of Alexander.

As events unfold, can two such markedly different sisters learn from each other? And, if so, what will the consequences be? Just when you think you know where the novel is headed, the author will surprise you, frighten you, charm you, and, ultimately, move you profoundly.

Raven Oak’s fantasy novel, Amaskan’s Blood, pays such careful attention to detail that readers will likely feel as if they’re reading historical fiction. While it does take occasional detours from realism, this epic novel reads like an extraordinary and engrossing depiction of actual events. This is a credit to Oak’s very precise and inviting prose and her enormous talent for elaborate plot twists imbued with emotional drama. Will fans of fantasy still like this book? Absolutely! In fact, if you’re longing for the next season of Game of Thrones to begin, this is the novel to read while you’re waiting.
- Writing: Excellent
- Sex: Nothing graphic – advised for 13+
- Violence: Killings involving knives and blood
- Narration: 3^rd Person
- Tense: Past
- Mood: Adventurous/Suspenseful
February 27, 2018
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS, A JERSEY SHORE MYSTERY by Michele Lynn Seigfried – Cozy Mystery, Female Sleuth
Bonnie Frattori, the heroine of Michele Lynn Seigfried’s latest Jersey Shore installment, has it all: a handsome neurosurgeon husband, two lovely little girls, and a big house right on the beach. Things couldn’t be peachier—until Lemon Face moves in next door.

Lyla (aka Lemon Face) and her husband, Senator Cason Spratt, are the neighbors from hell. Before they even settle in, Bonnie overhears Lyla accusing Cason of dropping his trousers in all the wrong places. It soon becomes apparent that Lyla is consumed with jealousy and sure Cason is after anything in a skirt.

Seeing that her own natural, innocent tendency to flirt bugs Lyla, and having gotten on the wrong side of her new neighbor’s temper without even trying, Bonnie goads Lemon Face on by humorously pretending she’s planning an affair with Cason. It isn’t long before Bonnie’s adoring spouse begins to suspect it’s true and stomps out in a rage. Poor Bonnie is left alone to deal with the increasingly insane, enraged Lemon Face who sends over poop bombs, paints WHORE on Bonnie’s garage door, and makes sure everyone in the community knows what a home-wrecker she is. See how quickly playing games can get you into trouble?

The book begins, though, on a far more sinister note with Bonnie sitting in a dank cell, with no memory of how she got there. She hears another woman’s screams through the walls. As Bonnie scours her memories of the past few weeks before she wound up in this terrifying situation, she recalls how she and her friend Chelsey, a private investigator, tried to find some connection between Lyla, Cason, and a girl named Polly Pitcher whose disappearance has the community in an uproar. Digging ever deeper, even neglecting her new job as a Municipal Clerk to hunt for dirt on Lyla and her philandering senator husband, Bonnie makes herself the target of thugs who will not stop at threats, but plan to murder her and the woman in the next cell. Flashbacks from Bonnie’s captivity to her attempts to ferret out the truth about her neighbors and restore peace on her little piece of the Jersey Shore make for moments both hilarious and harrowing.

Author Michele Seigfried has created Bonnie from a knowledgeable perspective, as she herself has worked as a Municipal Clerk in the State of New Jersey. Her up-close look at life behind the scenes in a local government office rings true. Chelsey, Bonnie, and others are recurring characters in this third of the Shore mystery series.

Seigfried knows how to cook up a multi-flavored stew with lots of surprise ingredients. Despite the imminent threat, her charmingly conceived heroine has more than her fair share of attitude and keeps comedy constantly on the boil.

A whodunit played for laughs as well as suspense, Community Affairs runs the gamut from gossip to greed to gore when neighbors clash on the posh Jersey Shore.

“Bonnie Frattori’s hijinx land her and her marriage in peril as she digs up dirt on her new neighbor. Cozy Mystery fans unite for Michele Seigfried’s 3rd book in The Jersey Shores Series: Community Affairs, a mystery with plenty of twists and turns staring a heroine with a penchant for designer shoes and trouble!” – Chanticleer Reviews
February 19, 2018
The MYSTERY of HOLLOW INN (SAMANTHA WOLF MYSTERY, BOOK 1) by Tara Ellis – Middle Grade Mystery, Folk Tales, Children’s Books
A summer vacation turns sinister for two tweeny girls far away from home.

Twelve-year-old Samantha (Sam) Wolf and her best friend Alyson (Ally) Parker leave their home state of Washington vacation two weeks in Montana where Sam’s aunt and uncle have turned an old mansion into a hotel called Hollow Inn, after the family that once lived there. While things look pretty good initially, the girls learn from the staff that the place is haunted. Moreover, business is suffering since the last guests abruptly left claiming someone else was in their room – a ghost! Now, Sam’s aunt and uncle must deal with negative rumors and targeted vandalism.

Sam doesn’t fall immediately into the trap of believing the mansion is haunted. Being a natural investigator, Sam happily delves into the Hollow family journal found in the attic. Her hope is to find answers, to separate fact from fiction where the Hollow family history is concerned, and find a way to boost her uncle and aunt’s business.

While Sam’s intentions are good, situations become challenging and downright frightening when a dark presence appears in her room during her first night at the inn. The next day, the girls take a little boat out on the lake and panic when the boat mysteriously overturns. More determined than ever, Sam and Ally begin snooping around the estate in earnest to get to the bottom of the strange occurrences. Their investigation pays off when they discover a secret passageway. Little do they know, however, that their find will point them down a dangerous path.

Ellis’ The Mystery at Hollow Inn, the first book in the Samantha Wolf Mysteries is a well-written work, filled with engaging dialogue, plenty of twists and turns, and chapter cliffhangers that champions a confident, inquisitive young girl and her friend.

Reminiscent of Nancy Drew, Samantha (Sam) Wolf is a relatable, well-crafted character that young readers will enjoy getting to know. Level-headed, smart, and focused, Ellis’ newest heroine can consider any situation that comes her way without allowing her emotions to taint her decisions. She’s also exceptionally curious, an asset that lands her in hot water time and time again.

Working with a small and relatively harmless-looking cast, Ellis keeps her antagonists under wraps while sprinkling red herrings and false leads throughout the narrative; and while clues (lightly laced with twists) are given, it’s a who-dun-it to the very end.

Make room on your bookshelf next to Nancy Drew! Here comes a new series perfect for today’s young mystery fan. Samantha Wolf tackles ghosts, vandals, and a creepy sense that someone or something is watching her every move!

Reviewer’s Notes:
- How was the writing? (very good style, minimal errors)
- Is there any sex? (none)
- Is there any violence? (very low- age appropriate)
- How is the book narrated? (third-person POV)
- Which tense is the book? (largely present tense)
- What’s the mood? (a classic Middle-Grade mystery that consistently builds tension)
February 17, 2018
HONG KONG CENTRAL, Lee Carruthers #3 by Marilynn Larew – Suspense, Crime Thriller
Former CIA agent and all around badass, Lee Carruthers, returns for the thrilling third book in the series, Hong Kong Central by Marilynn Larew.

Lee is looking forward to some well-earned downtime, so when her ex-boss and mentor, Sidney Worthington calls with another job, Lee is not amused. During her previous mission, people tried to kill her—multiple times. All she really wants right now is some serious R&R. However, she is the gal who will never say “no” to a job. And besides, Worthington swears it’s an easy gig.

Easy sounds nice. So, our heroine jets off to Hong Kong to track down Henry Wong, an antique dealer who missed a routine weekly check-in for the first time in twenty years. What could possibly be easier?

Once Lee arrives, she sets out to locate Wong Antiques and its proprietor, Henry. Ever the professional finder, she arrives at the antique shop just in time and witnesses Henry’s kidnapping. Lee “borrows” a random motorcycle (she’s not shy about bending a law or two when necessary) and the chase is on, ending when the bad guys dump Henry inside a bar run by a notorious Triad. This initiates a string of unfortunate events for Lee.

In no time at all, Lee is caught up in a battle between the police and pro-democracy demonstrators. The police pursue the demonstrators with tear gas and arrest as many of them as they can get their hands on, including our heroine – Lee. The pièce de résistance: while in jail, Lee is doused with vomit, thanks to one of her cellmates. The end of a perfect day—said no one.

Once Lee is released, her mission becomes even more tangled by labyrinthine layers of deception and obfuscation. She must kick her badassery into gear to complete the mission and stay alive. So much for a simple job.

The character of Lee Carruthers is well-crafted, compelling, and believable. She knows what she wants and when she wants it – and especially when she doesn’t. She can dazzle her prey by wearing a sexy black dress, tote a pistol in her clutch, or sport blue jeans and running shoes to investigate a suspicious event. Readers who loved Lee Carruthers in The Spider Catchers and Dead in Dubai will love her even more now. Readers who are new to Larew’s series are in for a fabulously thrilling, nail-biting, page-turning, edge-of-their seats ride.

Marilynn Larew’s writing style is smooth, engaging, and well-paced. Her ability to craft vibrant settings against the backdrop of exotic and gritty Hong Kong is exceptionally well-delivered. To sum it all up, Hong Kong Central is an absolute win.

Reviewer’s Notes:
- How was the writing? Excellent. The author crafts a solid story layered with interesting characters moving in and around the exotic, politically sensitive, and criminal underworld of Hong Kong. Her ability to create intriguing, believable scenes with succinct, eloquent prose is outstanding.
- Is there any sex? Yes, but it’s not graphic and works to reveal Lee’s attitude towards short and long-term relationships.
- Is there any violence? Yes, but it is not disproportionally graphic and is necessary to reveal the possible dangers facing the lead character.
- How is the book narrated? First-Person.
- Which tense is the book? Past.
- What’s the mood? Tense, colorful, and mysterious.
*Fans may purchase Hong Kong Central from the following retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Kobo, and Apple iTunes
February 15, 2018
DARKNESS FALLS, Book Two of WINDHOLLOWS by Trayner Bane – Children’s Books, Fantasy & Magic, Sword & Sorcery

What would life be like if the air we breathe was slowly, consciously, being robbed of oxygen itself?

What if the dark side in all of us could be manipulated by a soulless fiend, converting us into unwilling weapons against our own people?

While Air of Vengeance, the first book in the Windhollows series dealt more with issues of overcoming differences, friendships and family, Darkness Falls is more of an adventure/quest: characters from the first book bent on vanquishing evil and saving friends and family…

Windhollows is an idyllic land populated with fantastical creatures, where its peoples live symbiotically, producing complementary air-like Essenses necessary for life. Its way of life is threatened by a brilliant, twisted genius who vows revenge on the people who rejected him because he was different, whose arsenal of weapons both rob the air people breathe and turns others into creatures whose purpose in life is to destroy the ones they once loved.

As the second book opens, Doctor Molskin, father of Billy, the hero of Volume 1, discovers that the breathable air in parts of Windhollows, is being robbed of some of its essential chemical makeup called Essense. He understands almost immediately that the problem has been created by his former assistant who now calls himself Rip Stinker, a brilliant but twisted soul whose dismissal from the doctor’s Essense labs has caused him to seek revenge against the doctor, his children and all “normal” Windhollows denizens.

Stinker was born a “bare pants,” children lacking Essense and therefore societal outcasts. His revenge has been to rob a group of healthy children from birth of their Essense, including Billy, turning them “bare pants.” More menacing, he has now created another weapon that can transform these same children into misshapen monsters seeking their own revenge for their flawed destiny.

Two stories alternate throughout most of the book. First is the quest to find and destroy Rip Stinker and his evil technology undertaken initially by Dr. Molskin, and eventually by his son Billy along with two friends. The other story is built around Skylar, the sweet, innocent young barepants girl who was the object of Billy’s infatuation in the first book. She and other “bare pants” have been wooed by Rip Stinker’s seductive message of regaining their full Essense but she has her doubts about what this Faustian bargain will yield.

Along the way to Rip Stinker’s castle, Skylar discovers she has a mysterious ability to talk to the wild animals that no one else has. Just as she is reveling in her new powers, she runs afoul of Rip Stinker’s technology that turns her into a monster similar to Stinker himself who now is ruled by a darkness within her that she never knew existed, and she now finds her waging a war within, of light versus the darkness, even as she joins Stinker and his nefarious plans.

How these two quests intersect becomes the race-to-the-finish theme of this admirable middle-grade fantasy novel.

Follow the links to read the Axe Breaker and Air of Vengeance Chanticleer Reviews!

February 6, 2018
The LOOSE ENDS BECAME KNOTS: An ILLNESS NARRATIVE by Austin Hopkins – Memoir, Sexual Awakening, Health and Wellness

A young man survives the extremes of sexual abuse, physical harm and emotional chaos in the harrowing and profoundly powerful memoir, The Loose Ends Became Knots: An Illness Narrative by Austin M. Hopkins.

The experience of sexual violence starts for Hopkins as a teenager, during the time he struggles defining his own sexual identity. The men he meets take advantage of his youth and naiveté, at first, and later, though he gradually becomes wiser to the stark intricacies of a sexual awakening in the world of gay men, he still succumbs to men who use him – with and without his consent. He never seeks such treatment consciously, yet, it continues to happen. What is it about him that attracts predatory partners, he wonders? Hopkins grapples with the many issues that often assail young people dealing with gender identity: How can he reach out to his parents for help when the root of his pain contradicts whom he believes they want him to be? Is he disappointing them? Will they cut him out of their lives? How complicated his life has become since his childhood!

As encounter after encounter with unkind and uncaring individuals sends him into a downward spiral, three things work together to give him hope: he’s a bright student and doing well in college; he finds an excellent therapist who offers concrete advice and skills that will serve to help him personally and professionally in the years to come; and finally, after courageous self-examination and altered personal perspective, he meets a loving, compassionate partner, who, though not fully understanding the different emotions and energies from Hopkins past, authentically recognizes and acknowledges the unique qualities that his partner brings into their marriage.

Hopkins has collected this episodic memoir from his journals, poetry and other writings, and added the observations of others, attributing identity where permission was granted. He carefully phrases the depictions of sexual violence in a manner that compels the reader to feel his pain and humiliation. Hopkins does not shrink from the frank sense of shame and self-blame that characterizes his early encounters. Readers unfamiliar with sexual awakening stories may find some of the text hard to work through. And yet, the author presents his work as a gift to those who are on the brink of their own sexual awakening – or who are already there and wonder what next to do – how to live successfully in the malaise of public opinion and family complications. It is through the pain and traumatic recollections that Hopkins expresses himself most eloquently – and it is here where his work, though painful, is the most rewarding. Readers witness a young man triumph over obstacles and begin to actively balance his life with acceptance and love, endeavoring to help others along the way.

Hopkins’ story is profoundly powerful. And his story is not over – he is, after all, a young man working towards a career in medicine. He offers this narrative to “raise awareness of the pervasiveness of sexual violence within the gay community” as he experienced it. His goal is to help others who are experiencing similar kinds of abuse and hopefully shed a much-needed light in this potentially lonely and frightening time for those whose sexual identity is something other than what certain groups claim as normal.

January 31, 2018