Save Yourself, Kelly Braffet
Save Yourself, Kelly Braffet
5 Rating(s)
List: $20.00 | Sale: $14.00
Club: $10.00

Save Yourself

Author: Kelly Braffet

Narrator: Michael Goldstrom

Unabridged: 11 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/06/2013

Synopsis

A gripping novel full of suspense and pathos that Dennis Lehane calls an "electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller."

Patrick Cusimano’s life can’t get much worse. His father is in jail, he works the midnight shift at a grubby convenience store, and his brother’s girlfriend, Caro, has pushed their friendship to an uncomfortable new level.  On top of all that, he can’t shake the attentions of Layla Elshere, a goth teenager who befriends Patrick for reasons he doesn’t understand, and doesn’t fully trust. The temptations these two women offer are pushing Patrick to his breaking point.

Meanwhile, Layla’s little sister, Verna, is suffering through her first year of high school.  She’s become a prime target for her cruel classmates, and not just because of her strange name and her fundamentalist parents. Layla’s bad-girl rep casts a shadow too heavy for Verna to bear alone, so she falls in with her sister’s tribe of outcasts. But their world is far darker than she ever imagined…

Unless Patrick, Layla, Caro, and Verna can forge their own twisted paths to peace—with themselves, with each other—then they’re stuck on a dangerous collision course where the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Kelly Braffet has written a novel of unnerving power—darkly compelling, compulsively addictive, and shockingly honest.

About The Author

Kelly Braffet is the author of Josie and Jack and Last Seen Leaving. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, where she received her MFA. Kelly lives in upstate New York with her husband, the writer Owen King.

Reviews

Goodreads review by karen

this book surprised me, in a good way. i don't know what i thought it was going to be, but i definitely wasn't expecting what i got. and i like that i can still be surprised by books, this far along in my reading career. it's the story of two brothers, patrick and mike, whose father is in jail after......more

Goodreads review by Michael

There must be something in the water that Stephen King's family is drinking. King is currently in a bit of a second renaissance, producing some of the best work of his career. Then there's his son, Joe Hill, who with Horns and NOS4A2 has rocketed onto my authors to watch list and earned the same dist......more

Goodreads review by Adrianne

Pure entertainment with no meaty reward. You will learn nothing from this book, about humanity, or yourself, or timespace, or plants, even, you definitely won't learn anything about plants. The writing is perfectly adequate without ever being beautiful. You will continue to turn the pages in a kind......more

Quotes

“This summer’s must-read. . . . Braffet expertly captures the suffocating confines of small-town life and the desperation of its outliers, with prose that simmers and thrums. . . . The tension Braffet generates becomes nearly unbearable, and the conclusion, when it comes, feels satisfying and thoroughly earned.” —Laura Miller, Salon

"There’s storytelling skill to burn here. Ms. Braffet has empathy for her working-class characters and brings neglected places to convincing life." —New York Times

“Spectacularly nightmarish.” –Entertainment Weekly

“Kelly Braffet is the real deal.  Save Yourself is an electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller with honest-to-God people at its core. It rocks the house.” —Dennis Lehane, author of Live by Night

“Kelly Braffet’s Save Yourself is that rare and beautiful thing—a novel that takes us to dark places not just through vivid storytelling but also through keen emotional force. It’s a tale of damaged families and the perilous weight of the past, and as the action rushes towards its chilling conclusion, you’ll find yourself breathless, shaken, moved.” —Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me
 
“Astonishing.  Save Yourself goes deep into the hidden and shameful parts of grief, love, and anger, and the reader emerges shaken and grateful on the far end. It’s a lacerating read, and proves that Braffet is a writer in full command of her many, many talents.” —Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures

“Excruciatingly rendered characters and locomotive plotting. . . . The plot is on a collision course that is going to end ugly—but also, in Braffet’s hands, beautifully. . . . Perceptive, nervy, and with broad cross-genre appeal.” —Booklist

“Captivating, realistically creepy. . . . Braffet uses graceful prose, astute dialogue, and vivid characters to carry the plot to an unexpected and believable finale.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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