{"id":9772,"date":"2023-06-17T12:35:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-17T16:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=9772"},"modified":"2023-06-17T12:35:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-17T16:35:27","slug":"book-review-out-of-the-ashes-by-kara-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-out-of-the-ashes-by-kara-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Out of the Ashes by Kara Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Out of the Ashes<\/span><\/i> by Kara Thomas<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas and Mercer, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

ISBN-13 \u200e978-1662509537<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback; Kindle<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Samantha, a nurse in a hospital ICU, is rushing to leave Queens and head back to her small hometown in New York, at the start of Kara Thomas\u2019s engrossing thriller <\/span>Out of the Ashes. <\/span><\/i>It\u2019s late at night, and as she passes a cruiser, she confesses to having been \u201cskittish around law enforcement\u201d since she was a tween. \u201cNo need to behave like a criminal,\u201d she says to herself. \u201cI hadn\u2019t killed anyone. Not yet.\u201d But, it is surprisingly soon that she assists in her very sick uncle\u2019s suicide, and it is then that a flood of memories engulfs her as she has returned to the place where her mother, father, and little sister were shot and their home destroyed by fire in an unsolved murder several years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kara Thomas doesn\u2019t waste any time plunging the reader into the fascinating recent history of Carny, New York and the sometimes complicated lives of Samantha\u2019s relatives, friends, and enemies. We learn about the corrupt cop she fears, the addict who was once her friend, her harsh aunt, her loving father, and the men in the family farm business that seem to have some sort of hold over the town. In sharp, spare detail, Thomas draws multi-faceted characters and reveals their unique experiences with each other, experiences that tie them together in unexpected, for the reader, ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Samantha is an exciting protagonist: gutsy, smart, and aggressive. Her determination to find out whether her little sister might still be alive leads to a fast-paced investigation of people Sam already suspects to have been involved and those she adds to her list. Also, a detective new to the case poses alternative theories for Sam to consider. Whereas other crime novels might show us things are not as they seem, Thomas shows us Sam\u2019s perspective as an unchanging story that steadily becomes more of what it seems. Sam herself tells the gripping story of her own weaknesses and mistakes and is a study in the effects of childhood psychological trauma.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There is never a dull moment in <\/span>Out of the Ashes; <\/span><\/i>it is never predictable. Thomas delves into the complicated: internet research, family histories, and psychological trauma. However, the reader is never forced to accept confusion as the author\u2019s way of deepening the mysteries embedded in the narrative. This is a novel to lose yourself in – and maybe enjoy again someday on the big screen. <\/span>Highly recommended.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Nova Hadley<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Out of the Ashes by Kara Thomas Thomas and Mercer, 2023 ISBN-13 \u200e978-1662509537 Available: Paperback; Kindle   Samantha, a nurse in a hospital ICU, is rushing to leave Queens and head back to her small hometown in New York, at the start of Kara Thomas\u2019s engrossing thriller Out of the Ashes. It\u2019s late at night,<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5398,450,5397,5396,5399,2747,3502],"class_list":["post-9772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-assissted-suicide","tag-crime-fiction","tag-kara-thomas","tag-out-of-the-ashes","tag-psychological-trauma","tag-small-town-horror","tag-thriller-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9772"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9780,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9772\/revisions\/9780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}