Survivor

by Tabitha King

The consequences of a car accident in her youth come back to haunt photographer Kissy Mellors in the form of a policeman who pursues her and whom she eventually marries, in a nearly fatal decision

Genres: Fiction, Horror, Literature, Contemporary, Novels, Mystery

496 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Tabitha King is an American author. She is married to author Stephen King and is the mother of Joe Hill, Owen King, and Naomi King.

King was born Tabitha Jane-Frances Spruce in Old Town, Maine to Raymond George and Sarah Jane White Spruce and is one of eight children. Her primary education took place at St. Mary’s Grammar in Old Town, from which she graduated in 1963. She then attended John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor until 1967, and earned her Bachelor’s degree in history in 1971 from the University of Maine in Orono.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

What happened to Tabitha King? Specifically, what happened to Tabitha King between 1988 and 1993? 1988 saw the publication of Pearl, Stephen King's wife's fourth novel and (in my opinion) her crowning achievement. A sublime meditation on small-town life and personal achievement, I finished that book in two days with tears in my eyes and a new sense of optimism about my fellow friends and neighbors. It was one of those books -- the kind that sticks with you forever. That's not to say the books that came before that one weren't good -- quite the opposite, in fact. Small World, while obviously a debut novel, is a fun and imaginative sci-fi tale with two very memorable main characters. Caretakers, King's second novel, fully shows her growth and maturation as a writer. The Trap is perhaps the closest Tabby King comes to actual "horror" (for some reason, most folks assume Mrs. King writes scary stories because of who her spouse is), but it is her own thing.

However... after 1988, Mrs. King took a 5-year hiatus from writing. I don't know why -- maybe she just wasn't feeling inspired at the time. Maybe she lost her confidence from being in the shadows of her husband. Both of these reasons are completely valid. I'm not sure if either of those reasons are why she stopped writing for so long, but whatever the cause... she changed in those years. 1993's One On One, the closest King comes to young adult fiction, introduced a few things that would plague all of her work throughout the '90s -- namely uninteresting/idiotic male characters, insanely emotional/irrational female characters, and an utter fixation on sex. Seriously -- there is a reference to it (usually as crude and indiscreet as possible) on almost every page, if not every page, in One On One, The Book of Reuben, and Survivor. If her characters ain't throwing dishes or beating each other, they're hitting the sheets and wondering why sex (usually unprotected and as nasty as possible) is causing so many problems... so, naturally, the only solution is more sex. The sex is usually followed by verbal abuse, one of the two leaving, then coming back, rinse and repeat for 400 pages. Seriously, folks. I am not exaggerating.

Now, I am, by no means, a prude. I am a 19 years old college guy. I like to think of myself as a very open-minded, non-prudey fellow who doesn't mind sex in literature at all... if it's written well and/or has a point. Tabitha King's characters constantly use sex to get revenge on one another, to scorn other lovers (because literally everybody in her books has affairs), et cetera. It gets tiresome, and that's why it took me so long to read this book. I got tired of the abuse and maliciousness of these horrible people King has created. And yes, I get it -- there are real people out there like this. People use sex for power all of the time. People are hurtful and mean, and sadly... Tabby has probably painted a portrait of some actual folks in the world. However, I -- personally -- don't enjoy reading about people who have no real problems constantly creating problems for themselves and then wondering why they have problems. That's that ish I don't like.

On the flip-side, there are some things I really did like about this story. I liked Kissy's strong nature, and I absolutely loved Tabby's prose. Tabitha King could author a book of poetry and I'd buy that sucker in a flash. The first 100 or so pages were really good, and I was tricked at first into thinking Survivor was going to be better than The Book of Reuben. Both are probably equally bad, but I think I might actually like TBOR a tiny bit more if only because that book is a continuation of the Nodd's Ridge series and featured characters I already liked (albeit, they were fairly destroyed and wrangled unrecognizable in said book).

I wanted to like this book more than I actually did, and I'm sad I didn't enjoy it a whole lot because I know what Mrs. King is capable of. It's a shame she didn't publish another book after this for nine years, but maybe in that span of time she lost her utter fascination with sex and instead went back to writing spell-binding characters with depth and emotion. That book is, of course, Candles Burning which I will get to soon-ish. If you've never read Tabitha King before, do as I did and start with Small World and work your way out from there. This book isn't horrible, and in fact was quite good in a lot of places... but it's not one I'll ever come back to.

[Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book when I read it but that was 20 years ago; who knows what I'd think now? I do remember it lacked pacing - no real highs and lows, just going on - but what stuck out was the protagonist's incomprehensible relation with the drunk driver who passed her at a pedestrian crossing and ran over two women, killing one and critically injuring the other. This was how the book started, and was not the only inexplicable relation. My problem was that the story is mostly told from her point of view but when I needed her to explain, it went to the man's. And that may have been what held me, a whole lot of WTF as I tried to get inside her head.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

long time since I read this but I'd rate it between 3.5 to 4 stars

[Haley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my first Tabitha King read and I was highly disappointed. An unusual love story to say the least. I, as others, finished the book because I had a slight interest in the main character. King lost her way after the first chapter. The story just keeps circling around the same premise until King finally decides to mercifully put it to an end. I imagine Kissy and Junior's twisted love story continued making the same depressing loops long after the book ended.

[Leianne Stevens · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Original Post

Warning: SPOILERS!













Survivor
Tabitha King
Pub. February 1, 1998

First and foremost, I have to say that from the very first time I read this book [on a pane from St. Louis to Ontario CA], I fell in love. I am not a fan of either of the Kings work, but this one spoke to me on some strange level that I have not encountered before. It sucked me in and I tend to reread it several times a year. Even more so now, I feel that this book speaks to me. Here's why:

Summary: Narrated from the authors point of view, told from the standpoint of various characters as it pertains to the story.

Kissy Mellors is a graduate student at Sowerwine when she is involved in a fatal car accident that would change her life over the course of the novel. From the moment of impact, Kissy is suddenly thrown into the lives of three very different men. First there is Mike Burke, a campus police officer who is the first at he scene of the accident. Then there is James Houston, who is the man who caused the accident; he had been drinking and driving and will now have reckless endangerment and manslaughter on his record for life. And lastly, there is Junior Clootie, a college hockey star with a real chance at the pros, who used o date the young victim who died under the wheels of the aforementioned James Houston's vehicle [I will get into detail about each of them in my Character Analysis].

The accident changes Kissy's life. Discovering one of the victims Ruth, survived, she begins visiting her in the hospital where she meets Sylvia Cronin, Ruth's grandmother, who will slowly become a very dear friend and close confidant to Kissy. A few days later, Junior Clootie approaches Kissy at the campus workout center and they agree to attend the memorial of the victim who died, Diane, together. This "date" will spark a love interest that will last until the face paced end.

After a year or so, Kissy and Junior, who have been living together, sit in a maddening cycle events that wil change the entire story. Kissy then pursues James Houston, who has now been sentenced to jail for his crime. Fast forward a few years and we have a dynamite explosion of love, lust and what it means to trust in those you care about and how our every day choices may seem so simple, but in reality can cause a butterfly effect of epic proportions that can and will alter he course of several peoples lives.

Character Analysis:

Kissy Mellors - The star of the show. Her putting on the brakes in her Blazer starts the novel off in a hot and action packed adventure. She is an avid swimmer, professional photographer and later, mother.
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Junior Clootie - The hockey pro and love of Kissy's life [eventually]. He makes very poor decisions and often winds up in a lot of legal trouble before cleaning up his act and doing a total personality reconstruction. The often tumultuous relationship between Junior and Kissy makes for excellent reading and is a highly believable scenario.

Mike Burke - Mike starts out as a fun loving police man who works his way up to assistant district attorney. He is callous and cold, a sometimes wife beater with a heavy desire to own anything that he feels someone else has that is better than his.

James Huston - A murderer. From his first appearance as a drunk colege kid who has now ended his life as he knows it, James is an introverted man who enjoys helping other.s His affair with Kissy is short and sweet and he spends most of the novel in jail, although it is his actions that have brought all of our characters together.

Minor characters include Monette "Mony" Daniels, ThisDiane, various hockey payers, Junior's little sister Bernie and the rest of his family, as well as a cast of friends, family and acquaintances.

This book is a must read for people who enjoy action without being unrealistic. Ms. King spins a wonderfully woven web of intrigue, realism and love to lust. I recommend adding it to your collection as soon as possible.

That's all for now, Daring readers. What are you currently reading? What is your favorite book?

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

My one and only, true, one-star book according to the Goodreads rating system. I had found this marked down in a drug store bin back when you could buy books in a drug store.
So horrible I threw it under my bed, unfinished, and there it sat until I finished school and moved out of my parents' house to live on my own. I've been terrified to try any other Tabitha King book since.

[Leo Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Survivor was the first book by a still-living author that really made me think about my life, the paths I'd taken and would take, as well as the circumstances beyond my control. I was Maroon 5's "beauty queen at only 18" and I was on a plane to visit my childhood sweetheart. Always an avid reader, I remember clearly, choosing the violent red paperback among the endless copies of her husband's novels. It's a good thing that my flight was non-stop. St. Louis, Missouri to Ontario, California. My reading was non-stop as well. I finished the book in its entirety with an hour left of my flight to think.

I saw myself then in Kissy Mellors. While I wasn't yet enrolled in college and she was graduating with her BFA, I had recently left high school behind and our youths were comparable. At the time of my first read through, I was yet unmarried and not planning to have children at all but I still related to the ferocity of Kissy's transformation. I'd been a party girl while Kissy had been studious, I certainly felt her pain at being nicknamed "mellons". I myself rocked a DD by age 18. No, I've no idea where they went. I figure I went down a cup size with each child I'd later birth.

Survivor opens with the impact of a car wreck. Literally and metaphorically. I'd recently experienced a similar, albeit lesser, impact. No one but my future died in mine. The emotions flowing through Kissy as she realized on page three how her life is forever rocked, shocked and changed, I saw how my own accident took away my choices and laid way to the unforeseen paths that I'd been so deliberately blind to. Kissy was no more at fault for the trauma caused than I was. Yet both our wheels had begun to spin backward.

Fast forward to age 26 and I'm unpacking the last box brought from my mother's house to what was supposed to be my fairy-tale castle. Scattered among too many V.C Andrew's novels was my now worn, torn and battered red paperback. I remember clearly placing it on my new Bookshelf in a place of honor next to my EAP Collective works and my equally tattered copy of The Handmaid's Tale (oddly, no. Stephen King works graced my shelves). Like Survivor's male lead, Junior Clootie, I wanted to believe that the proverbial "happily ever after" was finally within my reach. I set up home and proceeded to discover that I was the only one interested in making this relationship work. Needless to say, I took a (haha) page from Kissy's book and high-tailed it back to the safety of Circumstances I could control.

Again I was so much like Junior in that I would have to survive the worst of myself first. Kissy, as I have discovered, can never see herself enough to face anyone. I dated the crazies, did the drugs, wrecked the cars, forever searching for the one thing that seemed unobtainable. Meanwhile, as Kissy and Junior collided with as much destruction as the accident that led them together, James Huston was left to rot for vehicular manslaughter. My Ryan was like James. Destined to destroy all in his path but leave his calling card behind. A calling card tucked away like a secret for too many years. Circumstances again? Both fictional James and non-fictional Ryan made choices with their own circumstances.

At 39 I located a digital copy on archive.org and began again. This time I see the silliness of Kissy's tantrums, I recognize myself in her moments of intense emotions. I see Junior's deep well of hope that Kissy can find forgiveness in her soul. For her parents, for him, for herself most of all. I understand Kissy's need to hold on Junior's betrayal, that need to have an adversary or else what else are you fighting for. Most of all, I understand Ruth. The silent bystander, the half-life taken in the opening accident. The girl who would grow only into the ghost of the woman she could have been. My circumstances made me transparent too.

Tabitha King writes a love story that isn't. She writes with grit and realness that I feel on my skin like too much sand rubbed into my sunburn. Survivor reminds me that I've been victim of external circumstances all my life. That I've allowed them to mercilessly shape and remake me. Time has broken and healed, people have loved and betrayed. While once Survivor was a foreshadowing of my own life, I now see, as Kissy eventually does, with hindsight. The only circumstances we can control are internal.

[Danielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love flawed characters. It's what makes them real and human and relatable. However, these characters aren't just flawed--they are horrible people. Even the main character, who I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to like or at least care a little about--we are told she is this strong-willed, independent, artistic woman. But then she literally has sex with anyone who looks at her, and pretty much just goes along with whatever any of the men in her life say. And THEN she gets pissed because she gets knocked up or gets an STD. I mean...?

Don't even get me started on the men in this novel. Everyone loves Kissy but only because she has big boobs, and every single one of them is an abusive adulterating asshole.

Dynah is the only character I actually liked because when she was shitty, it was in the understandable, realistic way of children who are exposed to shitty adults.

[Sharon Huether · Rating 3 out of 5]

A complicated story of people whose lives are forever changed as a result of an automobile accident; with two young women hit while crossing a street.
The young man guilty of hitting the women felt very bad. It didn't affect him as much as the driver who witnessed the accident.
One woman died as a result of the accident and the other one laid in the hospital with no hope of a normal life.
Kissy the witness who was also so close to the women , but not hitting them, held the most guilt. It affected her every waking moment. She was a regular visitor to her in the hospital and also to her grandmother's home where she lingered in bed.
Kissy continued to have trouble in relationships. She was haunted by this accident.

[Noelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I almost finished the book, but it was so bad I couldn't stand it anymore and just flipped through the last few pages to see if anyone died.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wouldn't recommend this unless you enjoy frustrating characters.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hated it, but couldn't stop reading it. The characters are crass, and broken, too willing to believe that sex equals love, is wielded as a weapon, and that guilt should be heeded. The ending creates a happy-ish situation and true romantics might applaud and what might be construed as the triumph of love, when in reality it finishes a tragedy tragically.

I felt like the survivor of this story.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it is unfair of me to compare Tabitha King's book to Steven's work, it is impossible not to remark that she just is not as good a writer as her husband. Notwithstanding, she is very good. On the back cover, Pinckney Benedict states "'Survivor' is a real readers's novel...a big book..." and I agree. On the spectrum from Literary novels to Popular fiction, Mrs. King's work tends toward literary: intelligent plot design, florid prose, and emotion that approaches electricity. She would have gained the missing two stars in my review if her sentences flowed a little more smoothly (I blame her editor for that) and if the characters' motivations were more clear. (By way of exposition, all they do is drink, do drugs, and have extramarital sex - they seemed almost "unreal" to me.) I like Tabitha King as a writer, and I will continue to read her work.

[Karli · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a very character driven novel, and follows the life of Kissy Mellors from the date of a fatal car crash through the next 7 years of ups, downs and questionable decisions. I love the writing, and how flawed the characters are. no one is without blame in the story, but its also hard not to relate to some of the thoughts, motivations and justifications that occur.

[Jessica Kuzmier · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think this book was supposed to be about survivor's guilt and the irrational things that people might do under these circumstances. But I don't know for sure, because these characters were such an unattractive, one-dimensional mess I didn't care. I gave up after sixty pages. I recommend it for no one.

[Bianca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't get it. I struggled through this entire thing, and nothing about it was particularly compelling. By the end, I hated pretty all of characters. Maybe that was the point...but this is the first book I read this year that I really wouldn't recommend bothering with.

[Ben Visel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book, but kept reading to see if it would go anywhere. I figured, "she's married to Stephen King, it can't be that bad." I was wrong.

[Lee Nespor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn . . . . .

[Stacy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It had some interesting moments, but the ending just leaves you hanging. The story is also very scattered in places.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I kept reading this because the lead character was interesting, but there is no plot to keep the reader turning the page.

[Viv Eliot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel like a survivor for having made it through this book. A bunch of mean, selfish people doing mean, selfish things to each other all with terrible endings just like this book.

[Kit★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took this book with me on a recent trip and read a chapter or two one evening in the hotel, but forgot to add a started reading date, so since I haven't touched it since then, and am just picking it back up now, we'll mark today as the start date I s'pose. Let's goooo!

Aight. Finished. What to say about this book... what to say? It was a story, that's for sure. There were characters, and stuff happened, and there was an ending... and it was quite... engaging and written quite well, definitely kept me reading, and interested in the characters, but..... I guess I just kinda felt like I just never knew where in the heck everything was really going? I don't even know what kind of genre/shelf tag to put this under, so I'm just leaving it as paperback, lol. Like, the back cover blurb of my copy makes it sound like it was going to be some kind of thriller, maybe some suspense or danger or something? It turned out more like, idk, not like, slice of life, but more like, a character study of sorts I suppose. Like, this one opening event, the car accident, leads to all kinds of things with these four specific characters that would most probably not have ever on chance happened otherwise. Relationships founded, obsessions discovered, drama all around.

I for the most part liked our main girly, Kissy. She made decisions and did things I myself wouldn't have in her place, but, hey, I'm not her. She was pretty relatable, though sometimes I wanted to grab her and shake her when she'd do her little run from problems shtick. I loved her focus on her photography though, I found it interesting to see through her eyes how she'd frame her shots, how she'd see and capture emotions and truth in them all, from the grittier crime pics, to her bare, no softening the harsh reality documenting of Ruth, one of the car accident victims. Her photographic passion was one of the things that felt most real to me about Kissy. Kept me liking her even when her choices kind of pissed me off.

Our main guy, Junior... at first, I found him kinda ugh, very frat-boy-ish vibes, and his first few interactions and behaviors with Kissy, and how their relationship began (as he was the off-again boyfriend of one of the accident victims) was rather off-putting, and I couldn't really take him seriously. To my surprise, though, he just about ended up being the character I liked the best! I think he had the most growth, development, and mental maturing done out of everybody. And he still was kind of a lil bit immature in the end, so I don't know what that says about the others, lol. Well, I guess I can't compare him to James, the guy who caused the car accident. Because, he definitely had a shit ton of maturing forced on him by the circumstances, but we didn't spend very much time at all with him as a main character like we did with Kissy, and Junior, and Mike, our fourth participant, the cop who was first on scene at the accident, and ends up a bit obsessed with Kissy (and Junior by association), and who ends up filling the 'bad guy'-esque role.

My review here is ending up just as kind of aimless and rambling as the story itself, but a few more things I liked:

The kid, Dynah, she was cute, and once she was a kid and not a baby, a bit of a firecracker, and I liked what she added to the lives and purpose of our characters. She definitely gave Kissy a larger purpose and focus, and was 100% the biggest driver of Junior's growth and maturing, despite his main desire for Kissy. Side note, I couldn't help but love how Junior did not at all flinch or change his feelings in the face of the truth of her origins. He stayed true, and proved he was actually a good damn dude in my eyes.

The hockey stuff, though I'm not much of one for sports. I found it interesting, mostly because outside of my elderly-millennial fondness for the Mighty Ducks movies, I know jack-all about hockey, so it was interesting to me. Seeing the games and practices through Junior's eyes, through Kissy's camera lens, and through Dynah's excitement for the game as she grew, was kind of fun.

The side characters, like Junior's family, his sister Bernie, his dad Dunny, fellow hockey teammates like Deker (lol, he was fun, a pain, but enjoyable), and, and, can't recall his name right now, but the Rich-Bitch's boyfriend. But screw Rich-Bitch and ThisDiane, those gals can flounce right off for all the trouble they caused, lol. I also quite loved Mrs. Cronin, Ruth's grandma, and how she became such a strong, supportive figure for Kissy, welcoming her in to their family despite the potential uncomfortableness, and painful circumstances of how they came to know each other due to the accident.

The writing in general. I mean, damn, Aunt Tabby can write! I was invested in these characters, wanted to see what happened, even when at times it felt like the story was going nowhere and I couldn't find the point, lol. Still, I had to keep going! Eminently readable. Eager to get into the couple of other books of hers I have in the TBR.

My gripe... the ending!!!! Finally the whole build-up of Mike's obsession, and eventual 'catching' of Kissy, their tumultuous relationship, the jealousy, Kissy's still fiery feelings for Junior, the truth of Dynah's birth, everything coming to a head, boooooom, finally some action and excitement... and then like, curtain dropped, and I'm like, whaaa!? What happened next!? After all this meandering, all this where are we going with this, just to finally get something happening, get my blood flowing and pages speeding by... and then that's it, the end, last page. I seriously finished, put the book down, went and had a smoke, and just looked up at the sky like what the heck, yo? What in the what?

I don't know that I'll be re-reading this book anytime soon, but I will be keeping it in my King-family collection. Like I said, the writing was compelling as all get out, the characters supremely fleshed-out, but I just never knew where the plot, if there really was an overarching plot, was going. Again, very much a capital L Literature-feeling story/character study despite the more pulpy vibes that it gave with some of the sex focus (and hello, speaking of vibes, I totes get the feeling that Aunt Tabby and Uncle Stevie have/had (idk, they are getting up there in age, lmao) an, um... interesting marriage bed! Like, damn, girl! Like finding out your adorable lil cookie-baking, apron-wearing granny is a kinky swinger or some shit, lmao! But I digress, because, lol, yea, some things are most definitely just better left un-thought-about...)

So, yea, an interesting story that at times kind of frustrated me, with characters that kind of did the same, but I just couldn't stop reading. I'm glad I got the chance to read this, though it was not really what I was expecting. Expectations all on me though, and maybe a bit on the OG publisher for a kind of misleading blurb, lol, but I'm giving it a solid 3 Stars.

[Dawn DeBois · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in a Little Free Library in Bangor, Maine- home of Tabitha & Stephen King. Color me shocked to find, when I sat down to read it that it was a signed copy of the first edition! Unfortunately, in the course of reading it, my 9 month old pug puppy “signed” it on one of the corners as well- nibbling it with her teeth.

Being completely honest, the first third of the book was hard to delve into because Tabitha over describes things using words that have to be looked up to understand every few lines. The overuse of her flourish style is the exact opposite of her husband’s style of writing, where his descriptions and character thoughts oftentimes mimic what we the reader would be thinking if we were in the character’s same situation- which is why his books are so addictive. However, the main character behind the story, Kissy, had witnessed a horrible event and how she attempted to come to terms with it, along with the mistakes along her way with a few different men, made this GenX’er whose made plenty of mistakes in my life want to read the story of Kissy. So, I focused on the story, and let the SAT type words used just float to the side and not worry about them- I wanted the gist of what was happening, nothing more.

The last half of the book, Kissy’s story unfolded in many unexpected ways AND Tabby left the flourish of far too many descriptive words alone. The story unfolding was all I the reader wanted to read and I could not put it down. I give the storyline 4 stars but this definitely isn’t a 5 star book. Anyone who is a Stephen King fan & curious about his other half and how she writes, I would definitely recommend this book. Tabby even references “Charlie Howard Park” and the Blaine House- which only locals would pick up what they were, truly. If you’d like to know: Charlie Howard Park” and the small placard she referenced is a small placard placed on a small bridge in Bangor, Maine, in memorial of a young gay man who was beat up by a few of my high school classmates and then tossed over that bridge and died in the mid 80s. The boys involved all did time at the Maine Youth Center. One has risen above and made amends for his mistake by speaking about hate crimes and is living a great family life locally. Another is truly struggling and the 3rd, he left the area. And the Blaine House? That’s the home for Maine’s Governor.

[Ronnie · Rating 1 out of 5]

"I ever write a book, I'm calling it When Bad People Happen to Good Ones."

Starts with a bang, with two sorority sisters getting hit by a drunk driver on the first page, but too quickly sinks into tediousness, with heroine Kissy "Melons" Mellors' serial separations from and rejoinings with randy goalie Junior Clootie filling in the bulk of the story before the concluding, whimpering bang that bookends this slow-moving tale before it's "over-done-with-tout-finis," as these annoying characters keep saying. If the goal was to turn a perfectly likable heroine who looks "too goo to be true" into a totally unsympathetic, treacherous demimonde, mission accomplished. Just no fun to read the inconsistent and long-winded lay-bys of that devolution.

First line:
"The girls came from nowhere, emerging from darkness suddenly, into the street directly in front of her."

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite book by this author. I wanted to like the main character but grew impatient with her lack of self control and repeated failure to take responsibility for her life. She wasn't loathsome or fearsome, just annoying. I don't know if the author intended her abandonment of her dog to the care of her drunken boyfriend to be a plotting device or an example of a flawed character. If the latter, an ambivalent presentation squandered the opportunity.

[Kathie Price · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Kissy who seemingly can only deal with herself through her photography and her needy sexuality. No condemnation of her. I can't quite understand being this confused about sex and three particular men for as long as she was. However, the book covers a MUCH smaller time span than the events seem to warrant. Not my favorite Tabitha King novel.

[Katherine · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was very well written, but it was a brutally honest story about alcoholism, domestic violence and adultery. And the effects those issues have on children. I found it very heavy to read, but I did enjoy it. However, I don’t know that I would easily recommend it to others.

[Ted Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one, although it took me some years to get around to it. No horror, other than the psychological and existential, just ordinary, gritty, human life. Quite a journey, a little like Anne Tyler with way more realism and depth.

[Linda Knight Crane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complex love story and family drama starting with a devastating car accident and the people involved. Beautifully written about flawed people. I enjoyed the hockey aspect. I enjoyed the story line but if you’re waiting for any resolutions, you will be disappointment.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't do much of anything for me. I was glad when I finished it