Review of Shooting Out the Lights, by Kim Fairley

The author takes us into a stressful summer in her life when she is newly married and pregnant and her much older husband agrees to take in Stan, the challenging eleven-year-old son of a friend. The protagonist describes incidents of Stan’s unusual, often delinquent, behavior, while weaving in traumas from her own childhood. The detailed descriptions of period architecture and mid-western plants make the book a historical and botanical guide. Similes like, “Vern’s health was as precarious as a five-foot stack of bowling balls,” and metaphors such as, “darting through the house like a rabid bat,” delighted this reader and are sprinkled generously throughout the book. An entertaining read. 

You can find out more at kimfairley.com.