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5797941,052 (3.36)18
Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:With 13 ½, Nevada Barr, New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning Anna Pigeon novels, has written a taut and terrifying psychological thriller. It carries the reader from the horrifying 1970s murder spree of a child?? dubbed ??Butcher Boy? by a shocked public??in Rochester, Minnesota, to Polly, the abused daughter of Mississippi ??trailer trash,? to post-Katrina New Orleans.In Jackson Square in the French Quarter a tarot card reader told Polly Deschamps she would be a success. Thirty years later, Polly is a respected professor of literature with good friends and her own home??a safe life for her and her two daughters.
Butcher Boy, released on his seventeenth birthday, shook the snow from his boots and headed south.New Orleans, a Mecca for runaways then and now, offers sanctuary but never forgiveness.
When Polly falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who is helping to rebuild her adopted city, shadows of the past rise out of the poisoned ground of New Orleans as thick and deadly as the toxic waters of the flood.
Like history, some crimes are doomed to repeat themselves. Evil stays the same, only the victims?? names change. As two broken pasts collide in an uncertain present, Polly is determined that her children??s name
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Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
13 1/2 by Nevada Barr.,

In 1971, 11-year-old Dylan is convicted of murdering everyone in his family with a hatchet except his older brother Rich, whom he injured significantly. He is name "Butcher Boy".
Polly runs away from an impossibly abusive home at 15 and heads to New Orleans. As an adult she meets Marshall Marchand and falls in love with him.as does her two daughters. But she soon realizes that Danny, his brother, seems to be over controlling.
Things are not always as they appear. ( )
  Irinna55 | Apr 22, 2024 |
I hadn't read anything by Barr before and I'm trying to branch out. It was ok. I'm having more and more trouble with books where child murder is a central theme so it wasn't Barr, it was me. ( )
  readingjag | Nov 29, 2021 |
As an 11-year-old in Minnesota, Dylan is sent to a juvenile detention center after murdering his parents and younger sister. The only one of his family spared was his brother Rich, who continues to visit him in prison. When Dylan is released as a young adult, he and Rich stick together and relocate to New Orleans, in the hope of beginning a new life. Meanwhile, Polly, who's grown up in Louisiana
in poverty with a drunk for a mother, has turned her life around. She meets and eventually marries an architect named Marshall Marchand. But secrets emerge, and soon the brothers cross paths with Polly.

This is the first novel I've ever read of Nevada Barr. She's apparently better known for her Anna Pigeon series, which has a lot of followers. This is a stand-alone novel. I read the abridged audio version. Sometimes abridgments are decent, though with this one, I felt like a lot of the story was cut out. Transitions were rough and choppy. Based on other reviews, I missed out on all the excessive blood and gore of this story, but that's okay. I can give or take that. But overall, this novel will ultimately be pretty forgettable for me. It was generally very predictable and nothing real original here. I may have enjoyed an unabridged version better, but I'm ready to move on regardless. ( )
  indygo88 | Aug 26, 2021 |
It all starts with brothers. Dylan and Rich. They are found, bloodied, while their parents lie slaughtered elsewhere. The evidence points to Dylan, the younger brother. And to Rich as the one who stopped Dylan from doing more harm.

Dylan is sentenced to a juvenile detention center, then to the state pen when he became an adult. The world knows him as "butcher boy".

Meanwhile, in another world, Polly has escaped her hellish life and, a young teen, has found herself in New Orleans. Always a good student, she uses her smarts to overcome what faces her. In spite of her outward success, many years later her past haunts her.

Still in Louisiana, Polly falls for Marshall, a restoration architect. He is a gentleman, always courtly and considerate. Such a far cry from others she has met. On their third date she even brings him to meet her young daughters, Emma and Grace. When he proposes, how can she say no?

On an impulse, Polly seeks advice from a fortune-teller. The Woman in Red tells her more than she could possibly know. But when Polly looks for her a second time she can't find her. After years of being on the street, she has disappeared, a large woman known for wearing red.

Living with Marshall, Polly discovers things that confuse her. It is the confusion that led her to look for the Woman in Red a second time, and to keep hunting for answers. Her persistence leads to danger. And discoveries long hidden. ( )
  slojudy | Sep 8, 2020 |
Pretty basic MH Clark-style thriller. ( )
  Seafox | Jul 24, 2019 |
Showing 1-5 of 42 (next | show all)
Barr, die in New Orleans woont, ook toen Katrina er doorheen raasde, voelde de krankzinnigheid, de verwoesting, de depressie, maar ook de sterke vastberadenheid om te overleven, die de stad beheerste. Die thema's vielen zo goed samen met de personages in het boek dat de keuze zich bijna opdrong.

Het verhaal voert van een hemelschreiend begin via doolhoven in de geest en dodelijke gaten in de stad naar een einde dat zich even van tevoren al aftekent, maar toch nog een flinke klap weet te maken. Het waarom blijft, zoals in het non-fictieve leven, een droevig mysterie.
 
Dat gezegd hebbende, is het wél een goed boek. Het is zelfs zo verslavend dat ik het binnen een dag uit had. Ik kon niet meer stoppen met lezen, ik moest gewoon verder gaan. En dat onbevredigende gevoel? Dat komt na een paar uur, of een paar dagen, dus het blijft hangen. En dat is ongelooflijk knap. Het blijft hangen en laat je niet los.
Het verhaal speelt zich af in New Orleans na orkaan Katrina. Een afgetakelde stad die tussen de ruines van wat eens was het leven weer op de rails probeert te krijgen. Dit staat mooi symbool voor de hoofdpersonen van het verhaal, die ieder na hun eigen tragedie uit de puinhoop proberen op te staan. Het is knap dat de schrijfster de wederopbouw van een leven op zoveel manieren heeft beschreven. Alle facetten komen op deze manier aan bod. Een aanrader voor een ieder die houdt van boeken met symboliek met veel spanning.
 
De vraag wat een jongen ertoe zet zijn familie uit te moorden blijft onbeantwoord, wat enerzijds onbevredigend en anderzijds misschien wel zo realistisch is. Sommige dingen zijn niet uit te leggen. Sommige mensen zijn gewoon gek, al was het ook erg interessant geweest om dieper in die gekte te gaan wroeten. Maar daarvoor worden thrillers niet geschreven, en als thriller is 13 1/2 uitermate geslaagd. Het is een spannend en verontrustend boek. Bovendien is het ontzettend knap hoe Barr sommige plottwists subtiel aankondigt, zodat je ze wel voelt aankomen, zonder dat je precies door hebt waar het vermoeden vandaan komt. Dit maakt de onaangekondigde plottwists des te verrassender.
 
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Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Voor Barbara Peters, die zonder enige moeite bergen verzet.
For Barbara Peters,
who moves mountains without breaking a sweat
First words
Per maand of per nacht stond op het bord boven de ingang van het caravanpark.
"By the Month or by the Night" read the sign over the entrance to the trailer park.
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Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Ondanks allerlei wijze songs en gezegden is een diamant niet de beste vriend van een vrouw. Hoewel ik moet toegeven dat de meeste vrouwen beter voor hun diamant zorgen dan mannen voor hun hond, zei Polly luchtig. Ze had het gevoel dat er opeens een storm dreigde die ze niet kon zien, maar waarvan ze de druk op haar ogen voelde.
Als je kinderen hebt, kun je er niet in berusten als ze in gevaar zijn. Met bepaalde fouten kan een moeder onmogelijk leven. Als ik twintig of derig was geweest, had ik misschien blinde liefde kunnen, onvoorwaardelijke liefde. Maar nu niet meer. Er zijn twee voorwaarden: Emma en Gracie. Een deel van me geloofde dat je me niet bedroog. Een deel van me weet dat iedereen een ander kan bedriegen.
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Fiction. Literature. Suspense. Thriller. HTML:With 13 ½, Nevada Barr, New York Times bestselling author of the award-winning Anna Pigeon novels, has written a taut and terrifying psychological thriller. It carries the reader from the horrifying 1970s murder spree of a child?? dubbed ??Butcher Boy? by a shocked public??in Rochester, Minnesota, to Polly, the abused daughter of Mississippi ??trailer trash,? to post-Katrina New Orleans.In Jackson Square in the French Quarter a tarot card reader told Polly Deschamps she would be a success. Thirty years later, Polly is a respected professor of literature with good friends and her own home??a safe life for her and her two daughters.
Butcher Boy, released on his seventeenth birthday, shook the snow from his boots and headed south.New Orleans, a Mecca for runaways then and now, offers sanctuary but never forgiveness.
When Polly falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who is helping to rebuild her adopted city, shadows of the past rise out of the poisoned ground of New Orleans as thick and deadly as the toxic waters of the flood.
Like history, some crimes are doomed to repeat themselves. Evil stays the same, only the victims?? names change. As two broken pasts collide in an uncertain present, Polly is determined that her children??s name

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13½ carries the reader from the horrifying 1970s murder spree of a child - dubbed "Butcher Boy" by a shocked public - in Rochester, Minnesota, to Polly, the abused daughter of Mississippi "trailer trash," to post-Katrina New Orleans.

    In Jackson Square in the French Quarter a tarot card reader told Polly Deschamps she would be a success. Thirty years later, Polly is a respected professor of literature with good friends and her own home - a safe life for her and her two daughters.

    Butcher Boy, released on his seventeenth birthday, shook the snow from his boots and headed south.
    New Orleans, a Mecca for runaways then and now, offers sanctuary but never forgiveness.

    When Polly falls in love with Marshall Marchand, a restoration architect who is helping to rebuild her adopted city, shadows of the past rise out of the poisoned ground of New Orleans as thick and deadly as the toxic waters of the flood.
    Like history, some crimes are doomed to repeat themselves. Evil stays the same, only the victims' names change. As two broken pasts collide in an uncertain present, Poly is determined that her children's names will never be on that list.
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