The Redheaded Stepchild: a Novel [Kindle Edition]

Kelly Hitchcock (Author)

Book Description

Cady O’Donnell is The Redheaded Stepchild, the heroine without any grandiose heroic actions. In this disjointed collection of short stories, we follow Cady as she tries on every hat in the this-is-your-life store to see what fits and works best in the adventures she shares with her special head of hair. Each chapter acts a screaming independent connection between the most formative years of her life, as she meets, lives with, and loses one of the most influential people in her lifetime. Set in a rural community in Minnesota, The Redheaded Stepchild is an archetype of life in small-town America and a testament that the broken family is the new whole family, just as Cady O’Donnell shows how the unwanted stepchild can be a everyday hero.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kelly I. Hitchcock is an up-and-coming writer in the Austin, Texas area. She is author of various poems about the randomness of life, several short stories, random creative nonfiction works, and the coming-of-age novel The Redheaded Stepchild. She is world-renowned among a readership of five people and growing.

Raised by a single father in the small town of Buffalo, Missouri, Kelly has fond memories of cash-strapped life in the Ozarks that strongly influence her writing and way of life.

When she's not writing manuals for money or writing poetry and fiction for unmoney, or training for the Jailbreak half marathon, Kelly enjoys sewing, playing dodgeball, and politics.  She is an avid volunteer and fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Product Details

• File Size: 468 KB
• Print Length: 307 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1468144146
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0063TDN42
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #521,626 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A glimpse into a vivid world January 10, 2012

By Shannon Skoglund

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I tend to read genre fiction, so when my friend recommended this, I put it off for awhile. When I finally did start it, though, I could barely put it down. Every chapter flowed into the next one, and I was excited to see which chapter of Cady's life would open to us next. Reaching the end was the only disappointment of the book; I wanted more!

I guess that's about the most you can say for a book, right? Once I started reading it, I wanted to keep reading it, and it left me wanting more.

Hitchcock's real strength lies in her descriptions, vivid imagery evoking the sights, colors, lighting, mood, smells and sounds of her locations: a seedy country bar in the middle of nowhere, a trailer park, a parent's bedroom.

Relationships also form a core component of this book, and it's delightful to watch them grow or shrink as we move forward and backward in time, discovering first an effect, then a cause, then another effect.

It's a quick, delightful, sharp and observant read, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended January 29, 2012

By AD

Format:Kindle Edition

An excellent book from Kelly Hitchcock! I felt like I was journeying through life with Cady, feeling every emotion with her. I couldn't help but feel hopeful, yet jaded with Cady as she meets her new stepmom, and I understood the love hate relationship Cad had for her stepmom as Cady grew up. Kelly paints vivid imagery of the house Cady lived in, the town, her friends, her relationship with her Mother, and most importantly her relationship with her Father to make the story so realistic. I can't wait to read Kelly's next book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Ordinary April 18, 2013

By The Mad Reviewer

Format:Kindle Edition

[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook from Kelly Hitchcock in exchange for an honest review.]

Sometimes, after reading fantasy and science fiction you lose sight of the fact that normal life makes good fiction as well. The Redheaded Stepchild is just that: a tale about normal life out in rural America, which is also applicable to rural Canada. And as someone who grew up in a very rural area, I can say with absolute certainty that Kelly Hitchcock portrays rural life incredibly well without any embellishments.

Our heroine Catherine, or Cady for short, isn't a kick-butt action heroine that you find in a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. She's just an average girl trying to deal with a dysfunctional family situation. Her family's poor but not starving, her father is divorced and has remarried and she's going to college to make a better life for herself. No, nothing truly unusual or overly dramatic here. But that doesn't mean The Redheaded Stepchild isn't interesting. What it does mean is that you get a slice of normal characters trying to deal with normal life, a true rarity in fiction. It sort of puts things in perspective as we watch Cady grow up through several disjointed short stories. (Of course everything is tied together in the end, but I found it was an interesting way to tell Cady's story.)

Really, what else is there to say? Cady was a great character with a believable character arc, the plot was not fast-paced but it was interesting and Kelly Hitchcock's quality of writing is excellent. The Redheaded Stepchild probably isn't for everyone, but if you're tired of fantastic stories and want a slice of normal life, this would be a great book for you.

I give this book 4.5/5 stars.

More About the Author

Kelly I. Hitchcock is an up-and-coming writer in the Austin, Texas area. She is author of various poems about the randomness of life, several short stories, random creative nonfiction works, and the coming-of-age novel The Redheaded Stepchild. She is world-renowned among a readership of five people and growing.

Raised by a single father in the small town of Buffalo, Missouri, Kelly has fond memories of cash-strapped life in the Ozarks that strongly influence her writing and way of life.

When she's not writing manuals for money or writing poetry and fiction for unmoney, or training for the Jailbreak half marathon, Kelly enjoys sewing, playing dodgeball, and politics. She is an avid volunteer and fundraiser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.