BOOK BITE
A thriller set in the solitary stillness of Idaho that chills and intrigues from the start. Hauntingly poignant and evocative with a real sense of place.
Book Acrostic
Wild
Haunting
Atmospheric
Treacherous
Bleak
Enduring
Ashton
Untamed
Tenacious
YA
Truthful
Hardy
Extreme
Resilient
Escape
Idaho
Saint Anthony
#Book Haiku
Ava and Jack run
towards an uncertain future
haunted by secrets.
Good Night To Read Review
Cory Anderson’s YA debut novel is a chillingly atmospheric thriller which grips from the start. Interwoven with the intertextuality of London’s ‘White Fang’, it is an intense and poetic love story of longing caught between the fangs of despair. It will rip your heart out,
“He’ll make you hurt. He’ll take away what matters most. He’ll do it with a smile then smoke a cigarette”
while intoxicating you with a sense of hope,
He wanted to help those boys. He wanted to stop what was coming. Surely he could.”
Set against the backdrop of the bleak beauty of an unforgiving landscape, it is reminiscent of Woodrell’s ‘Winter’s Bone’ in its depiction of poverty, subsistence living, the struggle of families to survive and a pervasive underworld of drug running. The protagonists have impossible choices and take risky chances as they face their problems with fortitude and tenacity.
Ava and Jack are drawn to each other even though they know in their hearts that its dangerous. Ava has experienced suffering that has sealed her heart and made her afraid to love. Following a tragedy, teen Jack vows to protect his younger brother Matty at all costs but that involves chasing illegal money squirreled away by his criminal dad. The only clue is “Eat or be Eaten”. Ava is compelled to protect them but is at the mercy of her coldly calculating, controlling and relentless father Bardem who also has an interest. Anderson’s short, evocative sentences build up the tension as the reader experiences agonising suspense. Pathetic fallacy shimmers through the book as Ava and Jack are stalked by painful memories and desperate to change the future while they battle through barren wilderness towards their ultimate goal.
Anderson’s vivid prose enhances her strong characterisation. She encapsulates a character’s spirit as in her chilling depiction of Jack’s uncle,
“…like looking at something clawed and yellow eyed at too close a distance.”
The reader is transported to the Rocky Mountains where hungry men are driven by raw savagery and family loyalty is at stake.
Each chapter is prefaced with Ava’s recollections followed by Jack’s story in the third person. Anderson also plays with perceptions by manipulating the Chapter numbers which go forward and then backward stopping at the infinity symbol. Her authorial voice cautions through Ava,
It is all chaos, reader. The whens and whys and hows. The sooner you learn this, the better.”
‘What Beauty There Is’ is a book that you cannot forget after you have reached the end. It is emotive and evocative to its last breath.
Book Chocoholic Rating- 5 Chocolate Libraries
A big thank you to the fantastic @Write_Reads @WriteReadsTours @PenguinPlatform @CoryAnderWrites #UltimateBlogTour for including Good Night To Read on the ‘What Beauty There Is’ Blog Tour.
DISCOVER MORE
Twitter- @coryanderwrites
TAGLINE- ‘When Everything you Love is in Danger. How Long Can You Keep Running to Survive?’
Visit her website for more information-
Five Facts About Cory Anderson
- Grew up in Idaho
- Winner of the League of Utah Writers Young Adult Novel Award
- Celebrates landscape of Idaho in her writing.
- Counts the wilderness classic ‘White Fang’ by Jack London among her favourite reads. Also inspired by authors Cormac McCarthy, Laurie Halse Anderson, Madeleine L’Engle, Markus Zusak, Patrick Ness, and Elizabeth Acevedo.
- Lives in the Wasatch Mountains
WHAT INSPIRED HER DEBUT NOVEL?
This place is real. I know where I’m from, and more importantly I understand it. I wanted to examine the harsh realities of rural life and the social ills that follow while avoiding simplistic stereotypes or cliches.”
Is opioid use commonly battled in small towns? Unfortunately, yes. When people are forced into poverty, will they go to extreme measures to survive? Absolutely. Do hurt people sometimes enact or repeat the hurts they’ve suffered? The answer again, I’m afraid, is yes. In Idaho and, I imagine many places like it, this is the reality.”
I admire Idaho people. They’re fierce so the storytelling has to be the same: stark, vivid and powerful.”
Cory on her inspiration for ‘What Beauty There Is’
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
AUTHOR- Anderson, Cory
TITLE- What Beauty There Is
NUMBER OF PAGES- 360
PUBLISHER- Penguin Books
PUBLICATION DATE- 8th April 2021
ISBN- 9780241441725
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