Ellen Hopkins
In this emotionally powerful novel, three women face the age-old midlife question: If I’m halfway to death, is this all I’ve got to show for it? Holly, filled with regret for being a stay-at-home mom, sheds sixty pounds and loses herself in the world of extramarital sex. Andrea, a single mom and avowed celibate, watches her friend Holly’s meltdown with a mixture of concern and contempt. Holly is throwing away what Andrea has spent her whole life searching for—a committed relationship with a decent guy. So what if Andrea picks up Holly’s castaway husband? Then there’s Marissa. She has more than her fair share of challenges—a gay teenage son, a terminally ill daughter, and a husband who buries himself in his work rather than face the facts. As one woman’s marriage unravels, another one’s rekindles. As one woman’s family comes apart at the seams, another’s is reconfigured into something bigger and better. In this story of connections and disconnections, one woman’s up is another one’s down, and all three of them will learn the meaning of friendship, betrayal, and forgiveness before it is through
Scientists say every action
initiates an equal and opposite
reaction. I say that’s just the start.
I say
every action initiates a most
unequal and unpredictable
chain reaction, that
every
filament of living becomes
part of a larger weave, while
remaining identifiable. That each
line
of latitude requires several
stripes of longitude to obtain
meaning. That every universe
is part
of a bigger heaven, a heaven
of rhythm and geometry,
where a heartbeat is the apex
of a triangle.
reviews from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
Teenage angst is all grown up—but no less fraught with sexual misadventure and gnawing insecurity—in Hopkins’s fearless first novel for adults written entirely in verse. For restless writer and mother-of-three Holly, her looming 40th birthday prompts increasingly risky sexual behavior (inspiration for her sizzling-hot erotica), even as her rebellious teenage daughter charges down her own dangerous sexual path. Meanwhile, Andrea, one divorce and one affair with a married man already under her belt, finds comfort with Holly’s husband after he discovers that Holly has been doing her erotica homework with another man. And while Andrea’s sister Marissa cares for her dying five-year-old daughter and her gay teenage son, her marriage crumbles under the weight of betrayal, anger, and guilt. Written in her signature poetic verse style, Hopkins (Crank) delivers a raw and riveting tale of love and forgiveness that will captivate readers. (Oct.)—Publishers Weekly