Shout Down the Moon FROM THE PUBLISHER
Her acclaimed debut, The Song Reader, won her praise as a "brilliant new literary talent" (The Albuquerque Tribune). Now, Lisa Tucker returns with a starkly lyrical novel of page-turning intensity and rare emotional power.
Patty Taylor can handle anything. So what if the guys in her band dismiss her as just a pretty face, hired by their manager to make them more popular? She's already survived a bad childhood, a destructive teenage relationship, homelessness, and working twelve-hour shifts washing dishes. Traveling with the band gives her a way to provide for Willie, the two-year-old son she adores.
But on a hot summer day in Kentucky, when Willie's father shows up outside her hotel room, newly paroled from prison and intent on having her and his son back, Patty begins a journey that will change her from a girl who can put up with anything to a woman with a voice that can bring the house down. Shout Down the Moon is about following dreams and overcoming obstacles, about finding your voice and becoming the hero of your own life. In Patty Taylor, Lisa Tucker has created an unlikely heroine, a gutsy girl with a wry sense of humor, whose life will depend on having the courage to trust in her big talent and even bigger heart.
FROM THE CRITICS
Philadelphia Inquirer
Patty is a character searching for her voice. . .And what a wonderfully drawn character she is. Tucker has the gift of knowing what to say and what to just suggest. She lets Patty tell her own story without self-pity despite plenty of pain and sadness. . . Much of her strength comes from her love for her son, her deep desire that he have a better life than she. Here, too, Tucker's portrayal is refreshingly real.
People Magazine
The situations Tucker describes here in starkly lyrical prose are as chilling as if they were all derived from her own experiences. . .but she never gets too sentimental. Instead, Patty's voice just feels honest. . .As she did in her 2003 first novel, The Song Reader, Tucker uses music to frame this story, and like a well-crafted song it builds in intensity until its explosive ending.
Bookreporter
Tucker's debut novel The Song Reader was an original and engrossing premise coupled with compelling writing. With that one book Tucker cemented herself as a strong new voice, a talented writer to watch for in the future. Now in her sophomore effort, Shout Down the Moon, Tucker proves that The Song Reader was no fluke; she has more stories to tell.
Publishers Weekly
Tucker's follow-up to her BookSense bestseller, The Song Reader, is even more commercially appealing, thanks to a ratcheted-up suspense angle that still allows for well-drawn, emotionally nuanced characters. Once again, music is the motivating factor for change in Tucker's world of jazz musicians singing the blues. Patty Taylor is determined not to settle for dead-end dishwashing jobs and life with her emotionally abusive, alcoholic mother. Her new job as the lead singer in a traveling jazz band, though hardly glamorous, provides hope for a future for her and her two-year-old son, Willie. But when Willie's drug-dealing father, Rick, is released from prison and breaks his parole to track them down, she must fight being pulled back into his violent world. Patty's tentative romance with Jonathan, the head of the band, builds her confidence as a performer and woman but also maddens Rick, who wants Patty by his side, even if he has to kill her to keep her. Tucker's unsentimental portrayal of Patty's conflicted loyalties-she once genuinely loved Rick, who saved her from her mother-gives the novel depth and complexity, as does Patty's struggle to learn the ropes of the jazz world and become more than just a pretty pop singer. It is her love for music and her devotion to her son that give her the strength to resist Rick and get her through the novel's surprisingly violent climax. Tucker's compulsively readable tale deftly moves over the literary landscape, avoiding genre classification; it succeeds as a subtle romance, an incisive character study and compelling woman-in-peril noir fiction. 17-city author tour; foreign rights sold in Germany and the U.K. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Patty, 21, is the mother of 2-year-old Willie and the lead singer in a band of musicians who resent her ignorance of jazz and the fact that her face rather than their music is what attracts the customers. The group's antagonism is the least of Patty's troubles, however. She has barely survived an abusive childhood, and when the story opens she is being stalked by the father of her child, a drug dealer recently out of jail who still has an emotional hold on the love-starved young woman. How Patty copes with the disrespect of her fellow musicians, their dishonest manager, caring for her son, her mother's alcoholism, and the frightening rage and rape by Willie's father makes a suspenseful story that will have readers holding their breath. Tucker depicts all the ugliness of the music business-drugs, sleazy managers, endless nights on the road, and poor accommodations-as well as the fierce dedication and hard work of talented, committed performers. In a satisfying and exciting conclusion, Patty finally escapes from her past and earns the friendship and respect of her fellow musicians.-Jackie Gropman, Chantilly Regional Library, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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