-Book Review: A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
By Dee Y. Stewart

Rating: 5 stars.

Rachel Howzell Hall’s first book is a gripping tale about sisterhood and family responsibility. Mental illness is a taboo topic to discuss for most people, including those who have family members grappling with the disease. Rachel Howzel Hall’s A Quiet Storm (Simon & Schuster, $13.00) is a brilliantly brooding tale of a young woman’s struggle to define a boundary between her responsibility to her family and her responsibility to her self. In the opening chapter Stacy Moore describes her peculiar predicament with her older sister, Rikki: “ I counted Rikki’s storms just like I counted Gods. Flashes of light- one, two, three, four – and then a boom. I saw her patches come and braced myself for the havoc. No one else seemed to see her clouds gathering. If they did they remained silent…And that was my life.”

Rikki Moore was always the family’s pride and joy. Her younger sister, Stacy could never quite get the family’s attention. Rikki was the prettiest, smartest and most popular girl in school. However, Stacy was more down to earth. It was no surprise when Rikki met and married the perfect man -- pediatrician Matt Dresden. Her students at 59th Street Elementary School adored her, the church matrons solicited her help on every committee, and everyone wanted the golden couple to put in an appearance at their parties. Although Stacy married before her and to a doctor as well, she was the supposed one who couldn't get her love life together. Because the world didn't know about the storms that rippled just beneath the surface of Rikki's image of perfection. Riki’s mental illness was apparent even in childhood. Yet her parents continued to keep it secret. Stacy kept the burden to herself, and began a destructive path as well. Folks whispered, but they didn't know. When Rikki's husband, Matt, mysteriously disappears, however, the Moore family's secret can no longer be kept in Stacy’s heart. Too many lives were at stake.

Available online at Amazon.com and http:www.rachelhowzell.com.

Women, mothers, those with mentally ill family members

Rachel Hall's writing style. The storm metaphoe ran throughout and she built the characters in such a way that you anticipated this impending storm.

That it ended. It was a great book.

hug my daughter and be kinder to my sister

thankful

Rachel Howzell Hall

It is a great read and a great study on character development for the novice writer.

Dee Y. Stewart is a freelance journalist, who resides in Avondale Estates, Georgia with her three-year-old daughter, Selah. She writes for Rejoice Christian Newspaper and Romance in Color.com, as well as completing a collection of short stories The Engagement Ring.

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Created Sep 26, 2003 at 4:59pm • Submit your own review...