Customer Comments

Regina Calcaterra's memoir was not so much a revelation to me as a wake up call. The part of the country that she describes so well in her book is very close to where I live. It is an area of suburban communities with green lawns, shopping malls, and families consisting of the regulation 2.5 children with a golden retriever in the backyard. Commuter communities where, at least at the time that Calcaterra is describing, the Dads go off to the city to work and the Moms run the PTA and ferry the kids around. I know that there is no way to know what happens behind the closed doors of communities like this, however, what happened to Ms. Calcaterra and her siblings had to have been glaring to the people that lived in close proximity to them. I imagine that most people kept their knowledge to themselves and tried to help the kids on a one-to-one basis,which is a temporary fix as the family moved around quite often. Since they lived "under the radar" even the local schools that they attended were not able to track them with enough regularity to come to their aid when it was needed. My take-away from this book is that things are not always as they seem. In some ways, the lives these children led made them stronger and closer as a family; however, all of them in some way were irreparably damaged by the circumstances of their upbringing. I encourage anyone interested in child welfare to pick up a copy of this book.

This book did not impress me. Well constructed fiction has to have qualities of believability to succeed. I found the plot to be somewhat valid, but the characters were poorly developed and lacking in dimension. I could neither "root" for the hero nor despise the villain with enough passion to keep my interest. I stuck with it though, all the way through to the bitter end hoping that Laura Lippman would rise to the occasion, but it was not to be. In the end I was disappointed, which is unusual with this author.

For more than 35 years Stephen King has been stealing my sleep. This latest effort is one of his finest, and I was not expecting it to be nearly as satisfying as it was. I am not overly fond of sequels, but Dr. Sleep is the exception to the rule. Like King, I had always wondered what long term effect the Overlook would have on little Danny Torrance. Turns out that the apple did not fall far from the tree.....but we all get a shot at redemption. Great read, I highly recommend it.

There's nothing more satisfying than unearthing the seedy side of the seemingly perfect suburban lifestyle. All this moral indignation and marital purity is really put to the test in Perrotta's novel. Specifically, the just-under-the-surface stagnation of Sarah's character coupled with Todd's never-grow-up wanderlust proves to be a fabulous mix and it kept me involved througout the book. The added bonus of the neighborhood pedophile was just icing on the cake. Great read...I love Perrotta.

I loved the dual narrative interplay

Loved the interplay of the dual narrative