Two Close: a story of survival

by Roberta M Roy, Cherie Cokeley (Photographer), Lorna Tychostup (Photographer)

Overview

The sequel to "Jolt: a rural noir," "Two Close: a story of survival" follows the path of the Matters family, Mary, Lou, and their sons, Jason and Marty. Separated following terrorism and a nuclear meltdown, Mary recuperates from radiation sickness while Lou, brain injured in a dirty bomb explosion, recovers from amnesia and right-side brain injuries. Their sons flee to the woods to escape the devastating effects of radiation poisoning.

"Two Close" is the story of a family's survival and how, through happenstance and determination, and despite the separate paths they tread, they survive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938729935
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	01/13/2021
Series:	Jolt Survival Trilogy , #2
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Roberta M Roy's book, "Jolt: a rural noir" medaled in the 2011 Jenkins Living Now Awards in Inspirational Fiction. Since then Roy has written it's sequel, "Two Close: a story of survival" and both books are now revised to synchronize their dates with the third book in the trilogy, "Home Again," which is anticipated for release in 2020. The ALVA Axiom Anthology of Author Interviews (ALVA Press 2014) highlights Roy's work as an editor interviewer and Straight from the Robin's Nest (2015) her work as an essayist. Roy's book "Slivers: Poems" by Roberta M Roy, medaled in the 2020 Jenkins International eLit Awards in Poetry.

Roy holds a B.A. in English from the State University College at Albany (SUNYA), an M.A. in Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Nebraska, and has done post Master's study at the University of Michigan. Roy is a licensed Speech-Language Pathologist in the State of New York. She resides in the Mid-Hudson Valley in New York State where she is the creative lead and owner operator of alvapressinc.com.
ID 43955499 © Cheriecokeley | Dreamstime.com With over 15 years experience working as an international journalist, editor, writer,
photographer, communications and outreach consultant, Lorna Tychostup began her writing career scrawling poems on napkins, and covering town and school board meetings for Mid-Hudson
Valley publications. Her reporting has since taken her to Mexico, Morocco, and the Middle East with a long-term focus on Iraq. She has BA in Cultural
Studies from SUNY Empire State College, and a
MS in International Relations from the Center for
Global Affairs at NYU.

Editorial Reviews

2021-01-19
A family crumbles when a local nuclear plant explodes, the result of a terrorist attack.

Lou Matters works at the Magdum Heights Nuclear Power Plant. In preparation for a possible if unlikely catastrophe, he created emergency protocols for his wife, Mary, and two young sons, Jason and Marty. When disaster does strike—the plant goes up in flames after terrorists detonate a dirty bomb—the boys grab their “go-to bag” and head north when they see the “glow of fires.” Badly injured in the blast, Lou suffers near total amnesia—he doesn’t remember his name until after five months of therapy. Meanwhile, Mary gets doused in “radioactive gunk” and convalesces at a neighbor’s home as she anxiously tracks the extent of her possible radiation sickness. Despite Lou’s purported preparations, the boys don’t seem to have much of a plan—one of many plot weaknesses in author Roy’s sequel to Jolt (2020). They head indiscriminately north and live in the woods until the winter compels them to seek shelter at a disaster relief center. Roy is at her best when depicting the disorientation that inevitably ensues after such a major calamity, a fog thickened by the dislocation of the Matters family. However, the story has a slapdash quality. Moreover, Roy’s prose is melodramatically leaden. Consider Jason’s lament over his separation from his parents: “He remembered his dad teaching him how to start the lawn mower and check its oil…his mom…cooking baked chicken and helping her to make the gravy. Tears welled in his eyed [sic]. He shook his head. Ever onward, he thought to himself…ever onward.”

A clumsily sentimental and poorly structured novel.

Kirkus Reviews