Gordon McAlpine’s latest foray into hardboiled metafiction, Woman With a Blue Pencil, pulls off a dazzling high wire act, managing multiple narratives and layers of reality without sacrificing an iota of page-turning power. The author deftly threads excerpts from two intertwined thrillers and snippets of letters, all set against the fever-pitched backdrop of post-Pearl Harbor Los Angeles. The novel also packs a powerful emotional punch, invoking one of the tragic and unforgivable chapters in American history—the internment of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during World War II—with a tertiary narrative of manipulation and self-betrayal.
This memoir recounts the relationships that a young Kelsey experienced, such as how her whole world got turned upside down when she met Howie. It touches on her complicated relationship with her mother, and how the love she developed for Cole nearly cost her life. The plot makes a full circle from when the author was younger to the adult version of herself, as she grieved the loss of her mother and had to look back at the past to be able to call things what they really were. This book chronicles the author's unraveling through poetry, letters, and recollection as an outlet to heal her past traumas. Double Crossed and Unraveled is for every survivor of neglect and abuse. It touches on domestic violence, PTSD, sexual assault, complicated grief, addiction, and recovery. It’s easy to get lost in this "riveting" story that's difficult to set down once you begin reading. https://a.co/d/aBAoWDU

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