The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti

Synopsis:

After years spent living on the run, Samuel Hawley moves with his teenage daughter, Loo, to Olympus, Massachusetts. There, in his late wife’s hometown, Hawley finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at school and grows curious about her mother’s mysterious death. Haunting them both are twelve scars Hawley carries on his body, from twelve bullets in his criminal past—a past that eventually spills over into his daughter’s present, until together they must face a reckoning yet to come. This father-daughter epic weaves back and forth through time and across America, from Alaska to the Adirondacks. Both a coming-of-age novel and a literary thriller, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley explores what it means to be a hero, and the cost we pay to protect the people we love most.

Publisher: The Dial Press
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Rating: ★★★

Review

***I received this eARC from netgalley in exchange for my honest review***

Character wise, my first impression of Hawley is that he needs professional help. You can tell he never allowed himself to grieve or let go of Loo's mother, Lily, judging by the amount of memories he's kept and how he basically builds this shrine to her everywhere they move. I love Loo's attitude! She just has this "take-no-shit-attitude" and I love girls and women like that. Sadly, I didn't start to love the characters until after about 45% of the book. I loved their relationship as father and daughter but I hate that it took so long for me to actually get to know them and love them.

Plot wise, I didn't like how the chapters detailing how Hawley got each bullet wound were squeezed into the book. There was no transition between bullet chapters and the rest of the book so, it felt like they were added last minute. I felt like I was reading two different books, one being a prequel and the other being the current book, smashed together. #PeanutButterAndJelly I feel like the plot moved really slow and I wasn't seeing the purpose or the end goal of the book.

Also, I didn't get any of the thriller vibes seeing that this is classified as being a thriller and to say that this is supposed to be a duel perspective novel, you get way more of Loo's point of view than Hawley and I wish I had an equal serving of both.