The Orphans of Race Point

The Orphans of Race Point reminds me of Gone Girl, but IMHO, it's way better with much more likeable characters. It's a fantastic love story, a very disturbing mystery, set in a gorgeous and fabled area, and an all-around good read. the publisher's blurb:

Set on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, a suspenseful page-turning saga of love, murder, and the true meaning of faith... Set in the close-knit Portuguese community of Provincetown, Massachusetts, it traces the relationship between Hallie Costa and Gus Silva, who meet as children in the wake of a terrible crime that leaves Gus parentless. Their friendship evolves into an enduring and passionate love that will ask more of them than they ever imagined. On the night of their high school prom, a show more terrible tragedy devastates their relationship and profoundly alters the course of their lives. And when, a decade later, Gus—now a priest—becomes entangled with a distraught woman named Ava and her daughter Mila, troubled souls who bring back vivid memories of his own damaged past, the unthinkable happens: he is charged with murder. Can Hallie save the man she’s never stopped loving, by not only freeing him from prison but also—finally—the curse of his past? Told in alternating voices,...(it) illuminates the transformative power of love and the myriad ways we find meaning in our lives.

I was drawn to this one by my fondness for the setting - Cape Cod; the characters - a large inter-related Portuguese family/community (I married into that group); and the promise of a good mystery. Patry has given us all three elements with crisp prose, flawed characters with eminently likeable personalities, and a mystery that at first doesn't seem like a mystery. The reader goes along believing that this is just a tragic love story, and doesn't realize until well into the dark despair of the star crossed lovers that all may not be as it seems. The main characters Hallie and Gus grow from young preteens to adulthood while navigating the treacherous shoals of adolescence guided by a variety of community parental figures who each had his/her own problems. I was rooting for an outcome that wasn't to be. Each of these characters was flawed; each had numerous redeeming qualities; each needed something the other was not capable of giving.

Other characters added a layer of complexity and richness portraying relationships full of love, caring, all the while bedeviled by the misunderstandings that often develop among teen-agers and their friends and parents. Nevertheless, the plot twists aroused my interest early on, ensuring that I wasn't going to do anything but read for almost 24 straight hours.

Although it's long, it moves along through several generations of family secrets and revelations to an ending that may not be what every reader is looking for. That resolution however, is one that satisfied my need for closure, forgiveness and redemption for most of the cast. It certainly kept me up reading well past my normal bedtime. I could not put it down, and can't stop urging everyone I meet to go get this one. show less

Almost exactly a year ago, I read an early copy of Anthony Marra's The Constellation of Vital Phenomena and was so knocked out by it, I told anyone who would listen (and even some who wouldn't) to read this book. I was so thrilled when it began to get great buzz and win many awards.

Reading Patry Francis' The Orphans of Race Point made me feel the same way. From the very first page, I fell in love with the story and the writing and the characters. Reading it, I was lost in the pages, and when people spoke to me, I did not hear them. I wanted to race through it, yet at the same time savor this incredible story and not have it ever end.

It begins in 1978, with nine-year-old Hallie Costa, whose mother died tragically in a drunk driving show more accident and whose father is the town's beloved doctor, willing to help anyone in anyway he can, whether medically or assisting them with a family situation.

Her father is called to a neighbor's home where a woman was murdered by her husband and their nine-year-old son Gus had been found catatonic in a closet. It was thought he witnessed the murder of his mother, but he was too traumatized to talk.

Hallie's dad Nick went to visit Gus, and after a five hour staring contest in which Nick "looked into Gus' sorrows and he looked into" Nick's, Gus spoke his first words in weeks- "I give." Hallie and her friend Neil, who was Gus' best friend, visited Gus every day, and Hallie came up with the idea of reading David Copperfield to him. She thought the story of an orphan who mades good might inspire Gus.

By the time they are in high school, Gus has become a football hero. He and Neil are still best friends, and Gus and Hallie have fallen in love. An incident happens at a beach party, and Gus' turbulent past plays a part in it, changing the three friends' lives forever.

Fast forward and Gus has become a priest, Neil is an actor and Hallie is a doctor like her dad. Father Gus is approached by a woman who has been beaten by her husband and asks for his help. Father Gus advises her to get away from her husband and offers to help her, but the situation escalates and Gus is convicted of a murder he did not commit.

This amazing story has so many compelling elements to it- there is the murder mystery, the love story and the true meaning of faith, friendship and family. The way it deals with faith and family also reminded me of Jennifer Haigh's gorgeous Faith, with its story of a priest mistakenly accused of a crime. The family that Hallie creates with people who are literal and figurative orphans is a beautiful one, and shows us that you don't need to be related to truly love someone deeply.

Like Constellation, Francis weaves her story elements together to a surprising conclusion. I did not see it coming in any way, and was as blindsided just as much as the characters were. The writing is lovely and the characters Francis creates are so real, I wanted to reach out to these lost souls. I don't know who I could call my favorite- Hallie _"dutiful on her dad's side, unruly on her mom's side", Gus, who cared deeply for his flock and yet led a tortured life, or "misfit princess" Mila, the murdered woman's daughter.

There are too many powerful scenes to choose a favorite- Hallie reading to young Gus, Mila visiting Gus in prison, Hallie ministering to her ill father, Nick's talk with Gus at the cottage- they all just touched my heart in a profoundly unforgettable way.

The Orphans of Race Point is the must-read book this year. It is big- over 500 pages- but you will find yourself lost in the lives of these loving, sometimes tragic, people. If you happen to see me anywhere, I warn you, I will tell you- READ THIS BOOK. show less

From the Publisher: The Orphans of Race Point traces the relationship between Hallie Costa and Gus Silva, who meet as children in the wake of a terrible crime that leaves Gus parentless. Their friendship evolves into an enduring and passionate love that will ask more of them than they ever imagined.
On the night of their high school prom, a terrible tragedy devastates their relationship and profoundly alters the course of their lives. And when, a decade later, Gus—now a priest—becomes entangled with a distraught woman named Ava and her daughter Mila, troubled souls who bring back vivid memories of his own damaged past, the unthinkable happens: he is charged with murder. Can Hallie save the man she’s never stopped loving, by not show more only freeing him from prison but also—finally—the curse of his past?
Told in alternating voices, The Orphans of Race Point illuminates the transformative power of love and the myriad ways we find meaning in our lives.

When you want to build a fire on the windy beaches of the Outer Cape, it’s best to start slowly; to protect a small pyre of driftwood twigs with your cupped hands and let the salt air funnel though them to ignite the spark. You shield it from the gale while funneling the buffeted channels of sea air as they swirl and the twigs catch fire; then slowly feed it until the flames are free to dance higher against the wind before settling into a crackling bed of hot red coals that warm the shore.
This is what reading The Orphans of Race Point felt like to me. With this story Patry Francis has carefully constructed a story with arcs and lulls leading to a satisfying conclusion.
As a thirty year ‘wash-a- shore’ my initial interest in this book was purely geographical – the publisher’s synopsis didn’t really pique my interest all that much. I requested an Advance Reader Copy to see if the author captured the essence of the area and was curious to see how much of a part, if any, Cape Cod had in this novel. What I found was that the Cape is a character in this book; its influence shaped who the other characters are- just the way it does the life of anyone who lives here - and I cannot imagine this story taking place anywhere else or how these characters could have developed in any other cultural setting. This is not to say that they are constricted by their location, but rather their personalities are authentically deepened by the richness of the community Patry portrays.
From the first section of what I thought was going to be a romance novel, Patry Francis has created a landscape of memorable, multidimensional characters who tell a “who done it” mystery laden with love, pain, fear, betrayal, and hope as their own, and you don’t doubt them for a moment. Because they have been so richly nuanced, the reader’s insight into each of the three speaker’s motivations allow them to propel their intricately woven story lines forward with realism and recognition.
The Orphans of Race Point spans decades in the lives of its two main characters, Hallie Costa and Gus Silva ( both familiar surnames in PTown) and the events that lead to the introduction of the third, Mila,many years into the story. Through a series of horrific events fueled by violence, alcohol, jealousy and deceit, our three protagonists manage to find faith, friendship, love and ultimately peace in what turns into a quest for truth and justice.
Given my luke-warm response to the synopsis, and the fact that I’ve not read Francis’ first book, I had no expectations of The Orphans of Race Point. What I discovered was not just a mystery, not just a love story, not just an exploration of how a person’s perception of events shapes his life, not just how inner strength and love can help overcome obstacles, not just how acceptance is as big a part of love as passion, but all of the above.

My thanks to Harper Perennial for forwarding this ARC. I’ll be gifting this one when it’s published. show less

YOU CANNOT NOT READ THIS BOOK! In this novel beautifully written in alternating POVs, one will find the complex realities of relationships within families, friends, communities, and even total strangers. Patry Francis shows how far everyone is willing to go for LOVE's sake and the ugly truth of human selfishness. The slow but progressive start and the struggles in the middle will lead you to the climactic sequence of friendship, betrayal, love, faith, and forgiveness. You will not regret reading this book. SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE.

I absolutely loved this book! The writing was so beautiful that I felt like I was in the real Provincetown. The descriptions of people, smells, sights, dunes, ocean made them surround me. I also fell in love with the characters: the main ones like Hallie, Gus, and Mila, but also the steady and/or eccentric secondary characters. I loved when they did, hurt when they suffered, encouraged when they persevered.

I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of The Orphans of Race Point before it came out, and have been raving about it to anyone who will listen ever since, and bought two copies -- one to keep and one to give as a gift. If you liked The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and are looking for another sprawling, Dickensian novel to read next…this is it.

Instead of in London, Las Vegas, or New York City, as in The Goldfinch, the tangled lives of two motherless children Gus and Hallie, and their friend Neil, unfold mostly on the beaches and narrow streets of Provincetown, Mass. – on the outermost tip of Cape Cod – and in the seacoast city of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where there is also a large Portuguese-American community. Tragedies, show more misunderstandings, and missed opportunities pile up for the three young friends, after a violent act by Gus’ father brings them together, setting them on their course for life. Fate lies heavily on the characters, as the book explores true love, fatherhood, human behavior, the human spirit, and what about ourselves can be changed.

It would make a great book club choice, and has a reading group guide included.

For a slightly longer review, please visit Bay State Reader's Advisory. show less

From the moment Gus Silva’s mother dies, Hallie Costa feels strangely connected to him. Although he refuses to speak for months after, it’s Hallie who finally helps him start to return to normalcy. When a terrible tragedy befalls them at their senior prom, Hallie is willing to stay by Gus’s side. And when years later Gus is accused of murder, Hallie wants more than anything to believe he didn’t do it. However, it will take Milla, the daughter of a woman Gus was counseling, to help Gus escape the shadow of his past.

There was only one thing I didn’t like about this book so I’m going to get it out of the way now. I was not a fan of how Gus impacted Hallie’s life. She’s one of my favorite characters ever and I think she show more would have had a better life without him. That, however, brings me to one of my favorite parts of this book: Hallie. From a precocious to a intelligent, successful adult, she was someone I would love to be friends with or to be myself. The author did a great job bringing all of her characters to life. Hallie, Gus, and Milla (especially Milla!), all had very distinct voices. I thought having Mila’s letters be written in terrible internet shorthand was a bit over the top, but other than that she seemed like an authentic, sarcastic, smart, and somewhat broken teenager. The setting was also fantastic, with interesting elements of Portuguese culture and of the culture of a small town in New England.

The plot took me on a complete emotional rollercoaster. Every time I was about to feel hopelessly depressed by what might have been, the characters displayed an amazing resilience which helped me keep going too. This book really deserves all of those blurbs I usually assume are hyperbolic. It’s gripping and poignant and a story of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity. It’s beautiful and moving and a fascinating look at generally believable relationships. Basically, it was all amazing. I couldn’t put it down and would highly recommend it.

This review first published on Doing Dewey. show less