So Much Pretty

At the beginning of this unusual and compelling book, Aimee Bruneau struggles a little with the emphases of sentences, a weakness that is occasionally distracting. As the story gathers power, though, she drops into gear, and narrator and story become a thrilling combination. At first, the book seems another version of an oft-told tale: the small- town murder of a young woman, possibly serial. But Hoffman has a different design in mind, an original device made of familiar parts, prejudice against educated outsiders and a young woman journalist crusading against misogyny and worse. These elements work together in quite unexpected ways and rachet toward a stunning climax. Bruneau effectively builds sympathy for her characters and sustains the listener's deftly managed misapprehension about where the plot is going. B.G. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

Starred review from January 10, 2011
In this remarkable debut, Hoffman addresses serious injustices in present-day America. In 1992, Claire and Gene Piper, both idealistic New York City physicians, eschew joining Doctors Without Borders and decide instead to move with their gifted two-year-old daughter, Alice, to upstate Haeden, N.Y., to pursue the simple life in the spirit of the '60s back-to-nature movement. After nearly two fruitless decades, Gene's hope of destroying corporate agribusiness in the name of "land and air and autonomy" has left Claire exhausted, in body and soul, and Alice determined to avenge a ghastly crime against all women that she realizes is implicit in Haeden's smalltown–ghost town mentality. Meanwhile, journalist Stacy Flynn indicts Big Pharm for forcing scientists to manipulate people into doing things the scientists believe are wrong, and factory food production for repurposing the countryside into a toxic-waste site. Hoffman's doomed characters burn their way off her angry pages. This searing novel will linger long in the reader's memory.