Good Reads / Community Library Notes
Give Me Your Hand
Megan Abbott
Review by Priscilla Comen
Give Me Your Hand
Megan Abbott
Review by Priscilla Comen
Give Me Your Hand, by Megan Abbott, is the story of Kit Owens, the only woman in a science lab that has received a grant to study PMDD [Premenstrual dysphoric disorder] under the supervision of Dr Severin. Kit is doing fine until her high school competitor, Diane Fleming, is accepted to the lab. She joins other post-docs: Serge, the Russian, Zills, and Alex, the rich boy and Maxim. Author Abbott shows us the passage of time by labeling chapters, Now and Then
Nine junior researchers are competing for three positions to work on the granted procedure. Back in high school, Kit had changed her major from communication to science because of Diane’s encouragement and her counselor’s urging. Both girls were runners then and did homework together. Author Abbott uses all the right scientific terms to show the studying the girls musts do. They earn top grades and receive scholarships. They go out one evening and dance with every man in the bar. Will Diane and Kit be chosen to work with Dr. Severin? “Then” in the past, Diane tells Kit how she killed her father with chemicals from her chem. lab. “Now” Kit tells Alex, one of her post-doc colleagues at the lab, this secret. Diane should never have told Kit. Kit wants to edge out Diane in her bid to work with Severin.
When Kit goes to the lab to change what she has told Alex, she finds him placing too much pressure on the cracked beaker, and, as it explodes, sees the glass shards enter Alex’ neck and cut open his jugular vein. Alex and the room are awash in blood. Kit stands there, stunned. Diane enters the lab and assumes Kit has done this to Alex. She advises Kit to say nothing, to help clean up the lab and dispose of all the mess and blood. Now they both have secrets.
The next day, Alex is gone. No one can find him. Diane and Kit are confused: he was dead when last they saw him. But they can’t tell anyone. Serge is in the lab, caring for his mouse pups, treating them gently. Cameras are everywhere, watching them. Where is Alex? Author Abbott keeps us dangling on the hook, not telling us until the end. Do Kit and Diane stick together? Do they tell the same story? Does Serge know the truth about Alex and Kit? Find this suspense filled novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
Nine junior researchers are competing for three positions to work on the granted procedure. Back in high school, Kit had changed her major from communication to science because of Diane’s encouragement and her counselor’s urging. Both girls were runners then and did homework together. Author Abbott uses all the right scientific terms to show the studying the girls musts do. They earn top grades and receive scholarships. They go out one evening and dance with every man in the bar. Will Diane and Kit be chosen to work with Dr. Severin? “Then” in the past, Diane tells Kit how she killed her father with chemicals from her chem. lab. “Now” Kit tells Alex, one of her post-doc colleagues at the lab, this secret. Diane should never have told Kit. Kit wants to edge out Diane in her bid to work with Severin.
When Kit goes to the lab to change what she has told Alex, she finds him placing too much pressure on the cracked beaker, and, as it explodes, sees the glass shards enter Alex’ neck and cut open his jugular vein. Alex and the room are awash in blood. Kit stands there, stunned. Diane enters the lab and assumes Kit has done this to Alex. She advises Kit to say nothing, to help clean up the lab and dispose of all the mess and blood. Now they both have secrets.
The next day, Alex is gone. No one can find him. Diane and Kit are confused: he was dead when last they saw him. But they can’t tell anyone. Serge is in the lab, caring for his mouse pups, treating them gently. Cameras are everywhere, watching them. Where is Alex? Author Abbott keeps us dangling on the hook, not telling us until the end. Do Kit and Diane stick together? Do they tell the same story? Does Serge know the truth about Alex and Kit? Find this suspense filled novel on the new fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.