The Vixen Amber Halloway, is Ophelia’s jailhouse confession as she retells her story and prepares for a parole board meeting to decide if she will be released from prison. Her husband Andy had an affair and fell in love Amber Halloway and Ophelia did not take that well. The definition of an unreliable narrator could easily be described as Ophelia in this book (my favorite of 2024 - so far).
Dante’s Commedia (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) has clearly been studied, as it is seamlessly integrated into this novel. I found myself bookmarking passages and then going to look them up. I loved that! After the affair comes out, “the hole in my (Ophelia) heart the size of a shotgun wound” would have to be filled. She filled it with anger, revenge, punishment (“fetid bog of the irredeemable”) and obsession.
Ophelia claims to be shy and does not like to “unburden” herself or make a “spectacle” of herself, but broken heart be damned. While dealing with what a psychiatrist calls “a break from reality” she doles out her punishment as she sees fit per her infinite wisdom of Dante’s Commedia. My favorite part of this book was that I found myself cheering on Ophelia. It’s not that I agree with what she did, but she made it seem right and just.
This is a must read for a book club, for any woman who has ever been wronged, and for any one who needs a page turner full of obsession and rage. Bravo Carol LaHines. I loved this.
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Purchase The Vixen Amber Halloway
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Barrington Books
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