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I'm really not sure where to begin with THE POINT OF FRACTURE by Frank Turner Hollon, or even what to tell you. It is extremely well-written --- so well-written in fact that I had to basically set aside all of my other reading for a day or so because its prose was still echoing around in my head. It is also profoundly unsettling, not in an in-your-face manner but similar to what James Tiptree, Jr. so famously described as a pretty pink birthday cake with a razor blade inside.
The source of the unsettlement here is its characters, who are so true-to-life as to be painful. There's Michael Brace, a not-quite functioning alcoholic who lives in the shadow of his fabulously successful older brother Phillip and who is entangled in a strange, loveless marriage with the beautiful Suzanne. Suzanne is both truly mad and brilliantly mad, and she is also very angry; we never learn exactly why she is so angry, but the depth and extent of her insanity is slowly revealed during the first half of the book. Suzanne may be possessed of heartstopping beauty but her scars run deep below her surface. When she exacts revenge on those around her --- revenge against disappointment, perhaps, or their failure to make things better for her --- the repercussions echo and resonate far from Suzanne's epicenter.
We know from the first paragraph of THE POINT OF FRACTURE that all is not well, when we find out that Michael and Suzanne sleep apart as a matter of constant practice. As we learn more --- that Suzanne has severe headaches, and Michael spends A LOT of time drinking and fishing, watching television, and other such pursuits with friends he has known since childhood --- the elements of a disaster waiting to happen coalesce. Suzanne is a master manipulator, and is especially adept at using her beauty and dormant sensuality with a cold, detached and sinister twist. Her plan, even when it passes out of her control, unfolds perfectly, almost to the end. One element that she could not have anticipated changes the outcome of everything; yet one cannot walk away from this novel without feeling that Suzanne's plan may have been successfully carried through.
Frank Turner Hollon is not a household name as yet, though THE POINT OF FRACTURE may well change that for him. This is a work to be read, explored, and experienced repeatedly. Very highly recommended.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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