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Title details for Ocean State by Stewart O'Nan - Available

Ocean State

by Stewart O'Nan
Sara Young
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
In the first line of Ocean State, we learn that a high-school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there with incredible momentum is thus one of the build-up to and fall-out from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. The murderer Angel, her mother Carol, and the victim Birdy, all come alive on the page as they converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel's younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight. Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy, frantically and single mindedly, and are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated. O'Nan's expert hand paints a fully realized portrait of these women but also weaves a compelling and heartbreaking story of working-class life in Ashaway, Rhode Island. Propulsive, moving, and deeply rendered, Ocean State is a masterful novel by one of our greatest storytellers

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 15, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666534986
      • File size: 165728 KB
      • Duration: 05:45:15

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 17, 2022
      There’s no mystery about what happens in this beautifully rendered and heartbreaking story from O’Nan (West of Sunset). In the opening pages, teenager Angel Oliviera murders another teen, Birdy Alves. O’Nan explores what led up to the killing and paints an intimate canvas of a small Rhode Island town in 2009. Women, teenage and adult, are the focal points and the narrators: Angel’s observant younger sister, Marie, sets the stage, and Birdy, Angel, and Angel’s mother, Carol, tell the story through a series of flashbacks and internal monologues. Birdy is dating Hector, but she’s in a clandestine relationship with Angel’s boyfriend. Angel frets about her mother’s desperate attempts to find love. Carol wants a better life for her daughters, but senses it’s “beyond her control” (the 2009 setting underscores the economic fragility). Social media serves as the ugly catalyst for the action that slowly, inexorably escalates. O’Nan evokes the feverish excitement of young love (“She only means to kiss him goodbye but they don’t know how to stop”) and the truly destructive force of jealousy. This isn’t a crime novel; it’s a Shakespearean tragedy told in spare, poetic, insightful prose. Agent: David Gernert, Gernert Co.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      O'Nan's literary mystery opens with eighth-grader Marie calmly stating that her sister, Angel, a senior, helped murder a girl. Narrator Sara Young is most nuanced when Marie speaks as an astute observer of the people and dynamics of her working-class Rhode Island town. Young brings Angel; Myles, the cheating boyfriend; and Birdy, the hapless victim, to life through unique teenage voices that illuminate their personalities. Less successful are the chapters told in a third-person omniscient voice, which Young delivers in a detached tone. In these sections of this small-town drama, inconsistent or nonexistent vocal nuances make it difficult to identify important secondary characters as their lives are impacted for years to come by the tragedy. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 1, 2022

      "When I was in eighth grade, my sister helped kill another girl." The opening line of O'Nan's (Last Night at the Lobster) latest tells listeners right away that no punches will be pulled. This brief, high-tension audio follows the lives of four women as they ebb and flow around a catastrophic act of violence. Teenagers Birdy and Angel both love Myles, who's been with Angel for years. Birdy is thrilled when she and Myles begin a secret relationship; Angel is enraged to discover Myles's infidelity and puts most of the blame on Birdy. Angel's mother tries to keep her family afloat as husbands and boyfriends come and go, and Angel's quiet sister sees it all happening but understands very little. Narrator Sara Young does a fantastic job of riding the novel's twists and turns. Her voices are distinct, adding layers of texture when they are in use. However, without vocal changes, listeners may struggle to keep track of the speaker when it comes to interior dialogue, as the writing doesn't always have explicit identifiers. VERDICT Listeners seeking atmosphere and tension will speed through, while those who like closure may be less satisfied.--Natalie Marshall

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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