Review
With 18 out of 20 reviewers rating it 4 or 5 stars, A Good Hard Look
is a top pick among BookBrowse readers!
Here's what they have to say:
Ann Napolitano has written a compelling story with a Southern Gothic feel. I love the way the major characters' lives intertwine (Ken F). As a Georgia resident, I thoroughly enjoyed Napolitano's exploration and examination of the lives in a tiny Georgia town transformed by its most famous daughter, Flannery O'Connor (Barbara A). We are privy to the internal lives of no less than eight main characters and they are all compelling. The writing style is quiet, unassuming, compassionate, giving voice to the turmoil and clashes of opposites in the heart of each character - intense joy and heartbreaking tragedy, passion and indifference, selfishness and generosity, engagement and withdrawal, attraction and rejection....
Beyond the Book
A number of reviewers describe
A Good Hard Look as "Southern Gothic".
Gothic fiction generally combines elements of horror and romance, and might include, among many other features, psychological or physical terror, mystery, the supernatural, gothic architecture, darkness, death and madness.
One of, if not
the earliest example of a gothic novel is Horace Walpole's
The Castle of Otranto (1764), and more recent examples include
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon,
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and...
