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The Right Side: A Novel
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In this "brilliant...deeply felt" (Stephen King) novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone.
LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.
Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side.
Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned—yet still seeking redemption and purpose. As Harlan Coben raves, this is "a great suspense novel, and so much more. You won't forget the heroic LeAnne Hogan—and the same goes for her dog! Not to be missed."
LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.
Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side.
Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned—yet still seeking redemption and purpose. As Harlan Coben raves, this is "a great suspense novel, and so much more. You won't forget the heroic LeAnne Hogan—and the same goes for her dog! Not to be missed."
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereInformazioni sul libro
The Right Side: A Novel
Descrizione
In this "brilliant...deeply felt" (Stephen King) novel by the New York Times bestselling author of the Chet and Bernie mystery series, a deeply damaged female soldier home from the war in Afghanistan becomes obsessed with finding a missing girl, gains an unlikely ally in a stray dog, and encounters new perils beyond the combat zone.
LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.
Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side.
Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned—yet still seeking redemption and purpose. As Harlan Coben raves, this is "a great suspense novel, and so much more. You won't forget the heroic LeAnne Hogan—and the same goes for her dog! Not to be missed."
LeAnne Hogan went to Afghanistan as a rising star in the military, and came back a much lesser person, mentally and physically. Now missing an eye and with half her face badly scarred, she can barely remember the disastrous desert operation that almost killed her. She is confused, angry, and suspects the fault is hers, even though nobody will come out and say it.
Shattered by one last blow—the sudden death of her hospital roommate, Marci—LeAnne finds herself on a fateful drive across the country, reflecting on her past and seeing no future. Her native land is now unfamiliar, recast in shadow by her one good eye, her damaged psyche, her weakened body. Arriving in the rain-soaked small town in Washington State that Marci called home, she makes a troubling discovery: Marci’s eight-year-old daughter has vanished. When a stray dog—a powerful, dark, unreadable creature, no one’s idea of a pet—seems to adopt LeAnne, a surprising connection is formed and something shifts inside her. As she becomes obsessed with finding Marci’s daughter, LeAnne and her inscrutable canine companion are drawn into danger as dark and menacing as her last Afghan mission. This time she has a strange but loyal fellow traveler protecting her blind side.
Enthralling, suspenseful, and psychologically nuanced, The Right Side introduces one of the most unforgettable protagonists in modern fiction: isolated, broken, disillusioned—yet still seeking redemption and purpose. As Harlan Coben raves, this is "a great suspense novel, and so much more. You won't forget the heroic LeAnne Hogan—and the same goes for her dog! Not to be missed."
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Recensioni
Here's the thing: lots of bloggers have praised this book for capturing the working of a mind suffering from PTSD. But readers of Quinn's Chet and Bernie series will likely recognize thought patterns very similar to Chet's. It was very distracting for me, often picturing the dog in my head, and then realizing it was a woman.
I came so close to giving this a 5 star review, but the last 1/3 of the book didn't stand up to the wonderfulness of the first 2/3. I loved LeAnne Hogan, and her bonding with a strange dog that she called Goody. This is a wonderful book for dog lovers, as Goody is by far the best character in the book. LeAnne herself is a strong female character who has been very damaged by an attack in Afghanistan. She is permanently scarred on the right side of her face and has lost her right eye. Not only that, but she is suffereing from a severe case of PTSD and has trouble focusing on issues and problems as her brain tends to forget things fairly quidkly. She meets a similarly damaged girl in Walter Reed Hospital as she is recovering from her injuries. Marci had lost a leg in Iraq. Marci tells LeAnne about her 8 year old daughter Mia who she left at home in Washington State. LeAnne finds herself strangely drawn to seek out Mia after Marci suddenly dies from complications from her injury. All good. We see LeAnne as she tries to focus on tracking down Mia, but her injuries and her PTSD interere with her thought processes. This is where the story breaks down somewhat as she meets and gets intimate with Marci's ex Harvey. Suddenly LeAnne's recovery kind of takes second place to this relationship between her and Harvey and Goody seems to take a back seat to this as well. The story broke down a bit at the end, and lost momentum. I had such high hopes for this story of LeAnne and her strange dog Goody. I was disappointed with the ending of the book, but interested enough to read other books in this new series if and when Spencer Quinn decides to write more.
This is quite a departure from Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie mystery series. There is no gentle humor. There is no dog's point of view. No, in The Right Side, Spencer Quinn gives us edginess, uncertainty, and an extremely unpredictable hero with an equally unreadable dog.LeAnne Hogan is a physical and psychological loose cannon. She's suffering from her injuries. She's suffering from PTSD. She's suffering from feelings of inadequacy and failure. She's not your usual choice for the hero of a book, and that's one of the things that makes The Right Side so good. You literally do not know which way LeAnne is going to jump from one scene to the next. Her anger is explosive and frightening, but Quinn portrays her in such a way that we instinctively know that she's a good person. We want her to get well. We want her to be safe and happy.This woman needs help, but she's going to fight everyone who wants to give her that help every single step of the way. She even fiercely resists the dog, but this huge beast of unknown pedigree just ignores her. The dog is just as much a mystery as LeAnne, but you know this relationship will work because of one thing: the dog unerringly protects her blind side.Quinn gives us two mysteries in The Right Side: one involving the missing child, and one that concerns what really happened to LeAnne in Afghanistan. Both are strong and grab your attention. Another mystery for me is... will Quinn write about LeAnne again? She's one of the best characters I've encountered in a long time, and I wouldn't mind reading more about her. But sometimes it's best to see just one adventure in a character's journey through life. Whatever the author does, I'm certainly glad I met LeAnne-- and I hope you'll decide to meet her, too.
I am giving this book two stars: one for the main character, LeAnne Hogan, and one for the dog. Both are unique, well-drawn characters. The plot, however, is a shambles, and the ending of both story lines is contrived. I suspect that the author was given some heavy-handed editorial "advice" about the need to have a positive ending and avoid any controversy. The PR department probably got it right, but that doesn't make it literature -- or even a good read. It starts out well, but the last third of the book does not hold up.
How could I not read this? Just look at that cover…..a woman & a dog. It’s not exactly love at first sight but they just might end up saving each other.When we meet Sgt. LeAnne Hogan, a few things are immediately clear. She has PTSD following a horrific attack in Afghanistan that also cost her an eye. Her brain is seriously scrambled. And she’s really, really angry. Thank God for Marci, her one-legged hospital roommate. LeAnne’s memory of the attack is as fragmented as the right side of her face. But when an army investigator shows up with a briefcase of questions, she begins to wonder if she screwed up. Any interest she had in cooperating goes out the window when Marci suddenly dies. The hospital becomes an unbearable place & LeAnne is soon on the first bus out of town.She has no idea where she’s going but it feels good to be on the move. Her prickly personality & damaged face keep people at bay as she struggles to adapt to her new reality. Just keeping track of her slippery thoughts can be exhausting. It’s the memory of Marci that eventually gives her direction & LeAnne heads to Bellville, Washington to visit Coreen & Mia, Marci’s mother & daughter.Once there, she discovers not only has she missed Marci’s funeral but Mia is missing. And while some people are welcoming there are others who’d prefer she move on. LeAnne rents a small cabin & soon acquires a new friend who is large, black, pushy & opinionated. And she has sharp teeth to back up the major ‘tude. But she also senses her new human’s frailty & as LeAnne begins to search for Mia, her furry partner becomes a constant presence on her right side. It’s the beginning of a mystical relationship that gives LeAnne strength as she digs for clues in the present & faces up to her past. Mia’s story line doesn’t appear until the second half of the book & despite the blurb description, it’s really a vehicle for the development of the MC. This is LeAnne’s story. Through her character, we experience all the fear, confusion, anger & hopelessness that shadows someone struggling with PTSD. She begins as a lost soul who can’t even trust herself let alone others. When she finally attempts a relationship, it’s with another outcast & I loved that the author chose to make that character a dog. Anyone who’s had a furry child knows there’s something about their silent acceptance & unconditional affection that makes the worst day a little easier to get through. In LeAnne’s case, she finds a companion whose circumstances mirror her own…..another scruffy looking stray trying to figure out where she belongs. Like most friends, they have their disagreements. But when the chips are down, they also have each others’ back. By the end most of the past & present has been resolved. Instead of a cheesy miraculous transformation, LeAnne is changed in subtle ways which is much more realistic. She’s an interesting, compelling character & if she & the ferocious furball decide to hit the road again, I’d happily go along for the ride.
If PTSD in returning soldiers wasn’t such a serious issue, then The Right Side by Spencer Quinn would be a humorous book. But it is a serious issue and Quinn handles it with humor while getting his point across: PTSD can manifest itself in many ways, some of which mess with your mind, make you forget things you remembered seconds ago, disorient you.If you were expecting another Chet and Bernie novel, you won’t find it in The Right Side, although a key character is a dog named Goody. LeAnne Hogan was injured in Iraq, losing her right eye, her right side becoming her blind side. While in Walter Reed Hospital, she befriends her roommate, Marci, who dies suddenly of a blood clot. LeAnne decides on the spur of the moment that Walter Reed is doing her no good, nor is the hospital psychiatrist, Dr. Machado, so she up and leaves, with no particular plan.Readers will follow LeAnne as she makes her way across the country in search, really, of herself. The ups and downs are dramatic, the almost loss of control at times real and scary. Quinn acknowledges two U.S. Army Veterans who reviewed and critiqued the book, so I’m assuming that Quinn’s portrayal of PTSD is accurate.Quinn draws a good and realistic picture of LeAnne and if you’re anything like me, you’ll be drawn to her and Goody and want her to overcome her demons. In reality, I’m guessing, you don’t necessarily overcome them; you just get them somewhat under control.If you’re interested in a young adult book on PTSD, then I’d suggest The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson and The Things a Brother Knows by Dana Reinhardt.I’ll go out on a limb and say The Right Side is one of the best books I’ve read this year, not necessarily because it’s overly literary, but because it addresses an ongoing issue with sensitivity and humor.