Commentaires client les plus utiles
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5.0étoiles sur 5
I love Joy Fielding's writing!, Avril 25 2009
HeartStopper
By Joy Fielding, Seal Books/Doubleday, 442 pp., $12.99
Joy Fielding has spent her career peeling back the skin of ordinary people. From her novel See Jane Run to Don't Cry Now, I've always found myself drawn into the lives of the people she writes about. While HeartStopper may seem to be a departure from the rest of her works, I would beg to differ; In HeartStopper, Fielding rips off the face of a small town and gives us look into the true nature of the people who live there.
Welcome to Torrance, Florida. Population: 4,160. Deputy sheriff, John Weber, 20 years on the job is having his competence questioned because of a serial killer who's targeting beautiful young women. The town, the mayor, even John himself are worried he can't protect these heartstoppers. With a wife and a daughter he doesn't like, John throws everything he has into his job. Teacher, Sandy Crosbie, an emotional wreck thanks to a straying husband, is too caught up in rebuilding her life. She may not be watching her own daughter, Megan, (one of Torrance's heartstoppers) as closely as she should. We also get to peer into the lives of a number of high school students who show such a tendency for cruelty that you just have to shake your head. Then there's Kerri, Sandy's husband's new girlfriend, a veteran of so many cosmetic surgeries no one knows where the fake stops and the real begins. And Fielding doesn't stop there. We get to read the serial killer's journal and witness the violence of one of the main suspects for the murders.
HeartStopper is the first of the Fielding books I've read which falls into the category of popular fiction, and she does it with style. I certainly enjoyed the novel. Couldn't put it down.
If all mainstream novels delved into character as well as Joy Fielding does, the landscape of popular fiction would look much different, and I would have to say better.
Copyright © 2008 by Clayton Bye
Heartstopper
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2.0étoiles sur 5
Not as chilling as I was lead to believe..., Fév 21 2009
I can't even get into a description with this one before giving my honest opinion. I think this is the first time I've ever read a book where there doesn't feel like there's a main character. I mean, the synopsis has Sandy Crosbie as the main character. While you do see a lot of her and what's going on in her life, the teens in the book, the sheriff and his family... it's like equal exposure. Chilling journal entries? Um, I think not. And I could tell it was a teenager that wrote them - mainly because of the writing and rambling. I don't want to reveal too much, in case you decide to read it, but I wasn't surprised by the outcome, it really didn't hold that much mystery or suspense for me, and not that much of a thriller either.
Sandy and her family had moved to Torrance at her husband's insistance. Little did Sandy know it was because of an online affair - for now her husband has left her for another woman. To make matters worse, she teaches the daughter of that woman. Can we say awkward? That's about the only thing that was awkward.
With a divorce looming in front of her, her friend finally convinces her on a double blind date, but Sandy went with the flow when she was "rescued" from her uncomfortability only to land herself in a stupid situation. And I do mean stupid situation - I thought it was the most ridiculous scenario the author could have put her in; completely obvious, and I think that made it worse, cause you knew before Sandy knew what was going to happen. Ugh. I have a friend who gave me a nickname for a stupid character like that: TSTL - Too Stupid To Live heroine. And even then, she wasn't a heroine. She didn't figure it out. Sure, she's worried about her 17-year-old daughter, and how the kidnappings and killings are of beautiful teenage girls, but she was just like everyone else in town - just as clueless as to who the killer was.
The climax had me turning the page, just to see what would happen. Sure, acceptable outcome. The last chapter is the killer's journal again, where you get the wrap-up of the aftermath. Again, everything was obvious. And this book was supposed to be a thriller? I wanted so much to like this book and was disappointed because, while I didn't hate it, I found it to be between "whatever" and "okay."
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4.0étoiles sur 5
AN ESTIMABLE VOICE PERFORMANCE, Avril 17 2007
A veritable magician with her voice, actress Judith West gives a superb reading of this thriller as she effortlessly moves from the cultured voice of an English teacher to the soft, high pitched exclamations of a twelfth grader to the gruff tones of a high school jock. She captures the voices of all the characters with tone, nuance and drama. As many will remember West also lent stellar narration to this author's bestseller Mad River Road. One can easily understand why authors would stand on line to have her read their work.
Joy Fielding is masterful at crafting suspense driven novels (Mad River Road, Puppet, etc). With her latest, Heartstopper, she skillfully alternates narrative voices between the chilling journal entries of an unknown killer and the daily doings in Torrance, Florida (population: 4,160) as seen through the eyes of high school English teacher Sandy Crosbie.
First, we hear the voice of a brutal murderer, "The girl is waking up.......That her life is in danger will hit her all at once, with the sudden force of a giant, renegade wave, knocking her back on the small cot I've so thoughtfully provided, even as she struggles gamely to her feet. This is my favorite part. Even more than what comes later."
He's watching his victim, Liana Martin, through a tiny peephole in the wall of a bare basement room where she is imprisoned. She is pretty, very pretty, "a real heartstopper" as his grandfather used to say. As he smiles and watches he remembers his first victim, Candy, a runaway. After all, he had to practice on someone and he knew that she would not be missed. After killing Candy and dumping her body in a swamp he was ready for Liana.
As it happens, Liana was one of 25 students in Sandy's twelfth-grade English class. Although Sandy had suspected her doctor husband, Ian, of being unfaithful, she had no real proof. His suggestion that she and their two teenagers, Megan and Tim, move from their home in Rochester, New York, to Torrance, Florida, had come as a surprise. Torrance was the middle of nowhere, Alligator Alley. Nonetheless, she acquiesced little knowing that Ian had fallen for a woman he met on an Internet chat room, and was going there to continue the affair in person.
Continue it he did. Not too long after their arrival in Torrance he'd packed his suitcase and moved into an apartment across town from Sandy and close to the new love of his life, Kerri Franklin, "Barbie clone and Internet paramour extraordinaire." His desertion isn't missed by any of the wise-cracking kids in Sandy's class who don't hesitate to embarrass her. Even worse, Kerri's overweight daughter, Delilah, sits in the front row, a constant reminder of Ian's infidelity.
The disappearance of Liana is a bit more than taciturn sheriff John Weber can handle. He's preoccupied with his ranting wife and anorexic daughter. Things heat up when Liana's body is found and before long eyes and accusations fall on Cal Hamilton, a wife beater and a lecherous science teacher.
Both are far too obvious suspects for this inventive author who startles us with twists and turns until the murderer is revealed.
Enjoy!
- Gail Cooke
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