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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tragedy Sets The Stage For A Serio-Comic Romp Of Retribution, December 15, 2010
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With its colorful title and kitschy cover design, I wasn't sure what to expect from Elizabeth Stuckey-French's new novel "The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady." The retro allure of the book seemed at odds with an advance blurb referencing, of all things, the film "Little Miss Sunshine." Well, the "Sunshine" comparison really does the book no favors--the two couldn't be more dissimilar other than the fact that they're both populated by a quirky family of dysfunction. Taking its cue from a devastatingly real tragedy, "Radioactive Lady" manages to be pleasingly heartfelt and slyly amusing. I credit Stuckey-French for attempting to meld this serio-comic romp onto a story that, more often than not, would have been played as dire drama. In fact, the notion that the novel was so light in tone was off-putting at first, but I eventually let the premise give way to a cast of likable and relatable characters (not necessarily an easy task in a book filled with eccentricities). "Radioactive Lady" tells the story of Marylou Ahearn, an elderly lady, still reeling from the death of her daughter decades in the past. While pregnant in the fifties, Marylou had unwittingly been used as a guinea pig in a medical study exploring the effects of radiation. By happenstance, Marylou has located the doctor directly involved (oh, the invention of Google) and has set herself on a course of revenge and retribution. Renamed Nancy Archer, an homage to the sci-fi film "Attack of the 50-foot Woman," she heads off to pursue her darkest ambition. Insinuating herself into Dr. Wilson Sprigg's life, however, necessitates her interactions with his family--his daughter who's withdrawing with menopause, a workaholic and flirtatious son-in-law, a beautiful elder granddaughter fixated on Elvis, a grandson who is a mad scientist, and the seemingly normal granddaughter that holds the family together. The chapters alternate between Marylou and the other characters, and Stuckey-French does a great job really humanizing each person involved. The two older children, Ava and Otis, both have Asperger's Syndrome and the author never condescends even as she uses the disease as a plot device. Suzy, the youngest daughter, carries much of the story and it is her relationship with Marylou that starts to unravel the nefarious plot to ruin the family. Needless to say, not everything goes according to plan and huge revelations are in store for the entire clan. Throughout it all, the gently comedic tone is perfectly balanced. It would have been very easy for this tale to veer way off into left field. Too much quirkiness can be a truly bad thing. But here, as I said, I believed in the characters and their peculiarities. This was a modern family, albeit heightened, who seemed realistically dysfunctional. So, I enjoyed "Radioactive Lady" and its pleasantly off-kilter look at what defines a family. It was fitfully funny, with charm to spare. I wasn't too surprised to see where the novel was headed, but I was entertained along the way. KGHarris, 12/10.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All the Things you do - Come back to You, February 8, 2011
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This nifty book was a pleasure from start to finish. How Elizabeth Stuckey-French accomplished this story with all the characters, back-story, elements, and plots and tied them up into this wonderful package is quite a feat. This is quite a different novel. Marylou Ahearn, aka Nance Archer, aka The Radioactive Lady - moved to Tallahassee for the sole purpose of revenge. The recipient of the revenge is a doctor she'd had an experience with years ago that altered her life, however, the old man lives hidden inside of a household full of his dysfunctional family members and is going senile. Vic, his son in law, buries himself in his work and has an odd obsession with hurricanes while his wife, miserable and unhappy cares for their two nearly grown Asberger children, Otis and Ava, and their youngest 'normal' daughter Suzi. Wilson Spriggs, the old doctor who Marylou is fixated on killing lives a life of day to day confusion in their midst. Marylou or Nance, as they know her, has moved into a house in their neighborhood and weasles her way into becoming a family friend. Nance schemes of ways to destroy them all, well, inbetween helping them in some form or another. It's all pretty crazy, and you'll have to read the book to find out what exactly happens since there is a story about each one of them. This book is just a fun read which is hard to admit with the seriousness of the underlying reason that Marylou goes to Tallahassee with her Corgi, Buster, to enact her revenge on an old man, that and some of the other monstrous things that occur in this book are of a serious nature, but Stuckey-French manages it all with a more than human edge and wonderful sense of humor and a good grasp of marital and family relations. This story is a touching read, funny and sad, relatable at most times and just a good all around read. Only a talented writer could weave such intricate subjects into such a heart warming, fun tale of revenge and family angst with a backdrop of people just trying to survive the world. Terrific.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not what I was expecting, December 16, 2010
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I don't read slice of life dramatic books. Especially anything that's shelved in the Literature/Fiction aisle. I used to, I read Brothers Karamazov, The Stranger, Rabbit at Rest, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe and many other fiction titles when I was in school. But once I hit the big city - Santa Rosa - and bigger libraries and used book stores, I started to read more, shall we say, sensational fiction titles. Books with the word Dead, Undead, Love and Vampire in them. Maybe moving out on my own made me yearn for more fantasy in my fiction, I don't know and could spend forever pondering my love of romantic, horrific or mysterious books over more serious literary fare. So, when I say that this book is a departure from my usual reading choices, I really mean it. The fact that I kept with the story straight through to the end is pretty strange too, because I thought this was a book about a woman with a supernatural power caused by exposure to radiation. Hilarious, right? Let's just say I was in a hurry to pick out a book and the title and cover art won me over. From the start of the book, I was sucked into the seething rage and sadness of the heroine, Marylou whose life was irrevocably changed when she was an unwitting participant in a medical experiment when she was pregnant with her first child. From this point on you see how this event, the tiny cup of gritty pink liquid and her fixation on the handsome young doctor in charge of the experiment shape her life. It isn't hard to sympathize with Marylou, she's been wronged in such a hurtful and tragic way that I almost quit the book when I found out the object of her murderous fantasies had dementia. How satisfying would her revenge be if the doctor is too addled to remember her much less understand her sick rage? But then the granddaughter enters the story. Suzy has a lot going on. A mother who doesn't like her, a dad whose terminally distracted,a demented grandpa with a murky past, siblings whose Aspergers disease has completely taken over the family. Suzy's place in the world is like an admonishment, a reminder of how ill and unlikely to lead a normal life her brother and sister have. A chance meeting (carefully planned by Marylou) with the older lady down the street offers a welcome distraction and even better a place to be appreciated and even perhaps liked. In all of the roiling machinations that follow it was Suzy that carries the story. She isn't unblemished by the sorrows that have beset her family, but she was the one that most had a chance to escape. There's a lot to giggle over with this book and after I got over my disappointment that there would be no superheroes or super villains I found the book to be interesting and the characters memorable.
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