#BookReview: Hadley and Grace by Suzanne Redfearn

Required Mention Of Thelma And Louise Meets Fast And Furious. Redfearn blatantly admits that she set out to do a “modern” retelling of Thelma and Louise and to honor a guy she met at her restaurant. Here, she did both exceedingly well. (Well, I never knew the real Skipper, but the fictionalized version of him is a great character.) But where so many reviewers focus on the Thelma and Louise aspect or the kid aspect, allow this childfree dude to bring in another aspect no other review I’ve seen has: This book is *also* exceedingly similar to the Fast and Furious franchise, with its emphasis on the family you create and doing the right thing by them while running from law enforcement agents who may or may not understand what is really going on – or care. Yes, Hadley and Grace could be seen as the Thelma and Louise that Redfearn blatantly set out to emulate. But they can also be seen as Dom and Brian, just trying to make bad situations right. Great light adventure story and a great way to begin a new year. Very much recommended.

This review of Hadley and Grace by Suzanne Redfearn was originally written on October 26, 2020.

#BookReview: In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn

More Tragic if i stay. Probably the singular best way to describe this book is to take a fairly well known book/ movie that has a very similar overall narrative structure – if i stay – and point out that this is a survival tale that is even more tragic than that tale. Going into this blind, I thought from the prologue that something would happen to a particular character (and that this tale would thus become more similar to Catherine McKenzie’s I’ll Never Tell), but the expected tragedy strikes an unexpected character instead. The rest of the book is then a tale about the fight to survive the tragedy, both in the immediate physical fight to live and in the aftermath of dealing with the consequences of that fight. Overall a very powerful, very raw, look at human nature and just what happens in the face of true imminent peril. One made even more powerful by the afterword, where the author reveals a stunningly tragic episode from her real life. Very much recommended.

This review of In An Instant by Suzanne Redfearn was originally written on February 17, 2020.