Providence A novel

Review by New York Times Review

NINETY-NINE GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET, by Craig Brown. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $16.) A British journalist dishes out gossipy tales of Margaret, who reveled in her role as her sister Queen Elizabeth's disobedient foil. Detailing everything from her disastrous romantic relationships to her bohemian friends, Brown turns the biography genre on its head, even imagining a marriage between Margaret and Picasso. THE CHANDELIER, by Clarice Lispector. Translated by Benjamin Moser and Magdalena Edwards. (New Directions, $16.95.) The Brazilian writer's second novel is a laboratory for the themes that occupy her later work: philosophical restiveness, the limits of language. The story follows Virgínia, a deeply dissatisfied young woman who struggles to articulate herself in a male-dominated culture. SHE HAS HER MOTHER'S LAUGH: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity, by Carl Zimmer. (Dutton, $20.) Zimmer, a science columnist for The Times, explores inheritance in all its varied dimensions - from genetic ancestry to biological definitions of race. Zimmer dispels longstanding scientific misconceptions, introduces facts that may surprise you and brings readers on a delightful journey of genetic discovery. PROVIDENCE, by Caroline Kepnes. (Random House, $17.) Jon and Chloe are best friends in New Hampshire, growing ever closer until he's kidnapped. He returns home years later - seemingly healthy but without any memory - and becomes a news media sensation. Sadly, more troubles arise as he and Chloe try to restore their closeness. The story promises the "kind of star-crossed, decade-hopping, supernatural crime romance that bursts at all the right seams," our reviewer, Charles Finch, wrote. ROOM TO DREAM, by David Lynch and Kristine McKenna. (Random House, $22.) The authors offer an impressionistic hybrid memoir of Lynch, from McKenna's biographical sections and Lynch's emotional recollections. "The portrait that emerges is that of a protean talent who has pungently projected the nightmares of his unconscious into his creative work but who is impressively at peace with his personal demons," our reviewer, Ben Dickinson, said. WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT CHARLIE OUTLAW, by Leah Stewart. (Putnam, $16.) After his romance with Josie, a ?-list actress in her 40s, goes sour, the title character, an actor quickly gaining fame, heads off to a remote island in search of anonymity and peace of mind. The trip takes some unexpected turns, and the novel offers satisfying insights into the difficulty of letting go of a romance.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 30, 2019]

---

Review by Booklist Review

Kepnes' third genre-bending book tells the story of New England young adults Jon and Chloe, best friends in middle school despite Jon being a bullied outsider. When Jon disappears one day in the woods, Chloe falls apart. Four years pass, and with high-school graduation on the horizon, she's almost over him. Then he reappears as mysteriously as he vanished. Jon wakes up hidden in the basement of the local mall, with a note from his captor explaining that Jon had been in an induced coma but is now perfectly fine . . . except for some special powers. Turns out Jon now has the ability to give people heart attacks just from being in their presence. The story takes off from there, with a detective determined to figure out why seemingly healthy people are dropping dead, and with Jon trying to keep away from Chloe while trying to convince her he's not evil by pushing her to read a Lovecraft story that mirrors his own situation. This complicated and intriguing tale is a strange blend of Lovecraftian horror, love story, and detective novel.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

The three leads in Kepnes's dark romantic thriller-Jon, the shy middle-schooler kidnapped and unwittingly transformed into a toxic superman; Chloe, the unattainable love of his life; and "Eggs" DeBenedictus, the seriously ill but relentless police detective investigating a series of suspicious deaths in Providence, R.I.-are brought to vivid life by a trio of talented performers. Reader Andrews voices Jon as a soft-spoken, bullied teenager infatuated with his only friend, Chloe. Years later, Jon returns, mysteriously changed into a powerful man whose emotions can have fatal results, and his self-disgust and frustration are obvious in every word he speaks. Actor Rankin's performance as Chloe, Jon's childhood friend, tracks the character's evolution from a giddy teen to a woman in love. As Eggs, actor Michael smartly conveys the relentless sleuth's determination to find the truth behind the series of deaths despite a debilitating illness. Kepnes's plot may be built around Jon's supernatural transformation, but the audiobook's success is based on the novel's more human elements: obsession, longing, love, and the possibility of a better tomorrow, all brilliantly conveyed by its three narrators. A Lenny hardcover. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Library Journal Review

Jon was the oddball kid bullied by the jocks in his small New Hampshire town: there is nothing particularly special about his life, except for his friendship with Chloe. She is the only one he can trust and the only one, outside of his parents, who cares when he disappears one day on his way to school. For a while, Chloe tries to keep the faith that Jon will return. But as time goes on, so does Chloe's life. Until the day four years later when Jon is awoken in a room by himself with no memories past the moment when former teacher Roger Blair kidnapped him. The only thing he has to help him understand what's happened to him is a book by H.P. Lovecraft with a note from Roger telling him he's now stronger then he will know. Jon is eager to see Chloe, but his arrival home sparks -unexpected health problems for those nearest to him. When someone dies after coming into contact with his new powers, Jon disappears once again, this time to a life of isolation in Providence, RI. There a detective named Eggs becomes determined to find the person responsible for the sudden deaths of several innocent people. Jon, Chloe, and Eggs all struggle to discover answers. VERDICT Once again, Kepnes (You) explores love and devotion on the fringes and does so to great effect in a novel with no easy answers or happy endings for anyone. [See Prepub Alert, 12/11/17.]-Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

The mysterious return of a kidnapped boy is more curse than blessing in this novelwhich is equal parts love story, thriller, and horror tale.In Nashua, New Hampshire, young teen Jon Bronson is the sort of boy who loves newspapers and hamsters and takes the long way to school to avoid bullies. He also loves fellow teen and popular budding artist Chloe Sayers, though he never admits as much. Kepnes (Hidden Bodies, 2016, etc.) nails the tentative feelings that develop between kids from different middle school social strata. When Jon vanishes one morningit's revealed early on that his kidnapper is local substitute teacher Roger Blairthe relative speed with which the town's interest wanes is nearly as devastating as his disappearance, a narrative trick Kepnes pulls off seamlessly. Four years later, a more muscular Jon emerges from the local mall with no memory of his captivity and a new obsession with the work of H.P. Lovecraft, particularly the novel The Dunwich Horror, which features a man named Wilbur Whateley, with whom Jon begins to identify. Soon after Jon's return, strange things begin happening to the people around him, from getting nosebleeds to fainting and even having a fatal heart attack. Jon disappears again, voluntarily this time, fearing that, like Wilbur, he's the monster whose mere presence causes sickness and death. Kepnes follows Jon, Chloe, and Charles "Eggs" DeBenedictus, a detective from Providence, Rhode Island, over the years as they live their separate but interconnected lives: Jon in Providence under two assumed names; Chloe in New York City as an artist who shot to fame with her initial paintings of Jon during his disappearance; and Eggs as he investigates a series of seemingly unlinked heart-attack deaths of young people. As the three come closer to one another and are repelled by either choice or circumstances, the question of sacrificing love for safety becomes painfully clear to everyone.Kepnes, whose previous novels deftly dealt with obsessive love, changes gears here and injects into this "Beauty and the Beast"-like story a deeper allegory about how far we'll go to protect the things we love the most. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---

Jon I brung Pedro home for Thanksgiving break and tomorrow I have to bring him back to school. You're not supposed to say brung. You're supposed to say brought. But I like the way brung sounds, like you're cold and ringing a bell. Brrrrunggggg. Nobody can kick your ass for what you think in your mind, not even your mom. Mine is stirring spaghetti sauce on the stove and shaking her head at me. "Get that rat outta my kitchen," she says. "Pedro's not a rat," I say. "He's a hamster." My mom doesn't budge. "Whatever he is, he's not staying in my kitchen. I'm not gonna keep repeating myself, Jon. Take that thing outside. Now." She always calls it my kitchen, same way my dad calls the TV my TV and the puffy chair my chair. My only territory is my bedroom. I guess my shed too, but that's in the woods and technically it belongs to Mrs. Curry. Everything else, in the house, indoors, belongs to my parents. I take Pedro outside to the swing set even though I'm too old for it. He shivers. "Come on, little guy," I say. "You're from New Hampshire. You can handle it." The truth is, I don't know if Pedro was born here. Maybe he was born in Bermuda and got shipped here. This is my home, where I started. I was born at Derry Hospital outside of Nashua. Three days before Carrig Birkus. Sometimes, when he's kicking my ass, I think about how we were in the hospital at the same time. I picture us as newborns in nearby cribs. I see our dads waving at us. We were equals in a way. Back then you probably couldn't tell us apart. But now we're opposite. Carrig is a jock. One of those guys with buddies. His life is keg parties and girls. He cracks a joke and everyone laughs, and he knows how to speak to people, how to get to them. Last month his picture was in the window at Rolling Jack's, the sports store in the mall. He was ATHLETE OF THE MONTH. I'm not anything of the month. Chloe laughed when I said that to her. "That's a good thing," she said. "The worst thing you can do is peak in middle school." She always says the right thing, the nice thing. I can picture her photo and her name up at another store, PERSON OF THE MONTH. I'd never say that though. I know that much. Tomorrow we go back to school, which means seeing her again, Chloe Smells Like Cookies. That's what I call her in my head. Every time my mom makes cookies, no matter what they are, oatmeal raisin or chocolate chip or caramel, they smell like Chloe. Chloe Smells Like Cookies doesn't make fun of me. She sits with me at lunch even though the other girls laugh at her and the other guys tell her she is wasting her time on a faggot. Chloe hates that word. She says after high school she's gonna live in New York City where nobody uses that word. She thinks the people in our school have small brains and small hearts. She says New York is like Sesame Street for grown-­ups, everyone has big hearts and you can be anything you want to be. She was there for Thanksgiving this week. Her parents took her to see the parade. She saw all the floats when they were shriveled and flat on the ground. We've been texting a lot all week. She says I'd love New York. It's so much bigger than New Hampshire even though it's smaller, you know? I get it, Chloe. I wish I was there. Of course you do. You always get it! My mom yells: "Dinner!" I write back fast: See you tomorrow. She sends me a smiley face. That's code for Me too, Jon. The house smells like spaghetti and broccoli, and my mom asks if I left Pedro outside and I tell her I did even though he's in my pocket. My dad picks up the broccoli and puts it in the microwave. "What are you doing?" my mom asks. "It's cooked just fine." "I can't stand that smell," he says. "It's good for you, that smell." My dad grunts. He's a burly guy who does drywall and plays pool. A lot of the guys around here think he's weird because he has a Scottish accent. I sneak bits of spaghetti into my pocket. I almost get away with it but Pedro nips at my finger and I yelp and my mom slams her fork down. "These damn schools. What the hell is there to be learned from taking a rat home at your age? Aren't you a little old for this nonsense?" "We're mentoring a class at the elementary school," I tell her. "None of the kids in third grade could take him so I volunteered." My parents look sad, like all this time they thought Pedro was here because he had to be here, not because I wanted him. "A lot of people have pets," I say. "Carrig Birkus has a dog." I shouldn't have said his name. They know I'm not friends with Carrig Birkus anymore. The last time he invited me to a birthday party was in fourth grade, when people still had parties with invitations, when your mom made you invite every kid. It was a Batman invitation so I showed up in my Spider-­Man outfit but everybody else was in normal clothes. Sometimes I feel bad for my parents, like they'd do better with one of the other babies from that day, the kind who plays sports and wears the right clothes to a stupid party. I look at my mom, right at her, like you do when you want something. "He's a clean animal," I say. "I promise he will stay in my room." My mom cuts her spaghetti. She doesn't roll it around her fork like people in New York do on TV. Her name is Penny and she's from New Hampshire, so she talks the way people here talk and she grew up on a farm where the animals stay outside. "It's your room," she says. "You want to live in a disgusting pig sty and let animals poop about your things, that's your business. Just don't go coming to me to clean up." On the way upstairs I sneak a box of Oreos out of the cupboard. My dad is talking to my mom about the Patriots and the Super Bowl and my mom is talking about Giselle and how beautiful she is. They speak the same language only different. What comes out of my mom's mouth never affects what comes out of my dad's mouth. I think Chloe and I are better at talking. What Chloe says always affects what I say. Upstairs, I put Pedro on my bed and bring an Oreo up to my nose and inhale, but Chloe smells like homemade cookies. I take out today's Nashua Telegraph and reread Pedro the headlines from this morning. Today is Sunday, the biggest paper of the week. I can't read the whole thing to Pedro, but I do my best. We make it to Section C, Lifestyles, and I think he likes it. I love news. It reminds you that there's a whole world out there, a world of people who've never even heard of Carrig Birkus. Every day is new, every paper, every story. In a book or a movie you only get one story. But in a newspaper, you get happy stories, sad stories, stories that you can't understand about mortgages, scary stories about robberies, meth heads, that kid who got kidnapped in Dover. Last Christmas my parents got me a subscription to the Telegraph. It was all I wanted. I was nervous they weren't gonna get it for me and I opened my last present, a sweater box. I was bummed. But I tore away the tissue paper and found a receipt for a subscription. I cheered and my mother laughed. I love it when she laughs, and it doesn't happen a lot. She said she will never understand me. "I hate newspapers," she said. "Who wants to know about all the terrible things people are doing?" "I want to know about everything," I told her. "But it has absolutely nothing to do with you whatsoever, Jon," she said, befuddled. "Nothing in there is your business at all." My dad was tearing the tag off his Patriots jersey. "Well," I said, "those Patriots don't have anything to do with Dad." I never heard my mom laugh so hard. She hit the couch, and my dad flew into a light rage, telling me it's not those Patriots. It's The Patriots. We had ham and cake and peppermint ice cream and the only thing wrong about that day was that there was no newspaper. They don't publish on Christmas. Then again, it only added to the joy of the next day, when I woke up early to get the paper out of the special box my dad had installed next to our mailbox. It was good to see that the world was back on again. When it's time to go to bed, I make a special place for Pedro. I use advertising flyers to build him a cozy bed. My mom is crazy. There's nothing dirty about him. If and when he poops, it won't even get on my sheets. "Good night, Pedro," I say. I close my eyes and I like the sound of him breathing, like it's a hard thing to do. The next morning my mom hits my door once. "School!" It's what she says every morning. Pedro pooped in his advertising bed and I crumple it up and bring it downstairs and throw it in the trash in the kitchen. My mom points at the trash with a spatula. "Is there poop in there?" "Yes," I say. "Then bring it outside." "But it snowed." "And since when are you allergic to snowflakes?" I take Pedro and his bed outside and look at the trees at the edge of our yard. My mom and dad don't know that it takes double the time for me to get to school every day because I have to go the back way, through Mrs. Curry's yard, with the thorns that branch out, then alongside her fence and through the mud clearing near the Dumpsters and then back through the Shawnee family's yard, by their swing set, and then finally down their driveway and onto Carnaby Street where my school is. It would be so much faster to walk out the front door of our house and turn left and walk down Birch all the way to Carnaby. That's what everyone on my street does. But I can't. Carrig and Penguin and those other guys, they come after me if I go the short way, they pound on me. They take my newspaper and smack me with it or they throw snowballs at me, black and brown and icy, the kind that hurt. When it's hot out, they jump me or knock my bag onto the ground. Chloe Smells Like Cookies takes the bus. She knows about my back way bramble route to avoid Carrig Birkus. She knows everything, more than my mom or my dad or the teachers. She's the only person who knows about my shed, our shed. I go there every single day after school and I bring Fluffernutters. Some days I hear her coming and my heart beats fast and then she comes in, throws her backpack down and starts complaining. Other days she doesn't come and it starts to get dark and I go online and see that she's busy with her other friends. But those days she does come, when I hear her in the woods, charging toward me, those are the ones that count. Chloe always says we get along because we're both only children. She hates that phrase. "It's bad any way you cut it," she said once. "It's either like, 'Oh you, what do you matter? You're only a kid.' Or it's like you're just not enough because there's only one of you." And then she licked her lips and looked away. "We're not only anything," she said. "We're great." See, I have that going for me, being an only child. Carrig Birkus, he has four brothers and a couple sisters. Imagine living with all those kids. I can't, not really. Me and Chloe, we have more in common. My mom opens the slider. She yells, "Breakfast!" Inside, she made burnt eggs and bacon and my dad is reading the paper. He gets to have it first and he gives it to me section by section. I put the pages back together so that it feels new, like nobody has looked through it. The good thing is that most days he only reads the sports section. "So, at the end of the year somebody gets to keep Pedro," I say. My mom looks at my dad and my dad puffs out his cheeks and my mom groans and my dad looks at me. "You keep him out of your mother's kitchen, yes?" "Yes!" I say, and I can't wait to get to school and tell Mrs. McMurphy that I want to keep Pedro. I can't wait to tell Chloe Smells Like Cookies. I think you can invite a girl over without weirding her out if you have a pet. I think that's why Carrig Birkus has a dog. I can't get to school fast enough. I tear through the brambles and I'm out of breath as if I'm running from bad guys. I run too fast and a thorn snags me. My cheek bleeds. I stop. I take off my glove and put my hand on my face. There is bright red blood. Pedro is in my pocket, shifting. I take him out and now there is blood on him. I apologize. I hear something in the bushes though there is never anyone else here. I turn around and my whole life doesn't flash before my eyes, just the past few hours, the headline on the cover of today's paper--­cyber monday: is it worth it?--­and the smell of last night's broccoli against the morning eggs, Pedro's heavy breathing, the snow, my blood on Pedro's Ovaltine-­colored fur. But it isn't one of the kids from school coming at me. It's a sub we had last year or the year before. Mr. Blair. Nobody liked him. He wore his phone on his belt and he was losing his hair on the top of his head and people laughed at him all the time. But I didn't. I didn't. He's coming at me fast and it turns out I am not the kind of kid who springs into action when it's time to fight. I freeze. I choke. Same way I do on the baseball field at recess. The blow comes from high above and something hits my head. Brrrrungggg. Pedro runs when I hit the ground. He can't send help. He's an animal, and like my mom says, he belongs out here. I don't. Excerpted from Providence: A Novel by Caroline Kepnes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---