The third title in Roxane Gay Books’ inaugural list, Hot Springs Drive is an urgent, vicious blade of a novel about a shocking betrayal and its aftermath, asking just how far you’ll go to have everything you want
Jackie Stinson’s best friend is dead, and everyone knows who killed her.
Jackie wants to be many things, but a martyr has never been one of them. She is an ex–emotional eater and mother of four, who has finally lost the weight she long yearned to be free of. In her new, sharp-edged body, she goes by Jacqueline. But leaving her old self behind proves harder than she ever imagined. And while she believes she should be happier, misery still chases her, and motherhood threatens to subsume what little is left of her.
Jacqueline’s only salve is her best friend Theresa, whose seemingly perfect life she desperately covets. Since they met in the maternity ward fifteen years earlier, the two have survived the trials of motherhood side by side—Theresa with her quiet, cherubic daughter, and Jacqueline with her rambunctious, unruly boys. Their bond is tight, but it is not enough to keep Jacqueline, finally moving through the world in the body she has always wanted, from stealing a bit of Theresa’s perfect life.
Hot Springs Drive is a dark, heart-pounding exploration of one woman’s deepest desires, and how the consequences of betrayal can ripple outward beyond the initial strike point. In her third and fiercest novel, acclaimed literary voice Lindsay Hunter deftly peels back the fragile veneer of two suburban families and the secrets roiling between them.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Jackie Stinson’s best friend is dead, and everyone knows who killed her.
Jackie wants to be many things, but a martyr has never been one of them. She is an ex–emotional eater and mother of four, who has finally lost the weight she long yearned to be free of. In her new, sharp-edged body, she goes by Jacqueline. But leaving her old self behind proves harder than she ever imagined. And while she believes she should be happier, misery still chases her, and motherhood threatens to subsume what little is left of her.
Jacqueline’s only salve is her best friend Theresa, whose seemingly perfect life she desperately covets. Since they met in the maternity ward fifteen years earlier, the two have survived the trials of motherhood side by side—Theresa with her quiet, cherubic daughter, and Jacqueline with her rambunctious, unruly boys. Their bond is tight, but it is not enough to keep Jacqueline, finally moving through the world in the body she has always wanted, from stealing a bit of Theresa’s perfect life.
Hot Springs Drive is a dark, heart-pounding exploration of one woman’s deepest desires, and how the consequences of betrayal can ripple outward beyond the initial strike point. In her third and fiercest novel, acclaimed literary voice Lindsay Hunter deftly peels back the fragile veneer of two suburban families and the secrets roiling between them.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Hot Springs Drive is Lindsay Hunter at her finest. Suburbia is rendered here in all its bleakness and not-so-hidden dysfunction, the rot secreted inside the picture-perfect shell of a home. Hunter is a deft hand at writing the mysterious inner workings of the family: everyone shares a story, but who holds onto the truth? Hot Springs Drive is gritty and propulsive, a true page-turner; I couldn't put this book down." - Kristen Arnett
"Poignant, luscious, brutal, gorgeous, heartbreaking, and totally unique - this stunning book destroyed me, and I didn't want it to end." - Andrea Bartz
"Hot Springs Drive is a bold, unflinching exploration of female friendship, motherhood, and desire, with an unforgettable anti-heroine as its bloody, beating heart. I've read nothing like it." - Kirstin Chen
"Hot Springs Drive is a sneak attack. It has everything you could want in a book, delivered when you least expect it. Truly ugly and beautiful humanity. Electrifying chemistry in heartbreaking places. Hope when it seems all hope is lost. And mystery that goes way beyond a simple whodunnit. I'm in awe of the lives that Hunter has conjured in these pages. I mourn their lost innocence, and I ache for them now that I've reached the last page. The only balm is to read it again." - Diane Cook
"In Hot Springs Drive, Hunter mixes a perfect cocktail: precise and gritty writing, achingly and terrifyingly real characters, with a dash of mystery and darkness. Intoxicating." - Claire Fuller
"I f**ing loved this. Thrilling and gorgeously observed, Hot Springs Drive surprises with both what the characters do and what they don't do, all with sentences as tightly spring-loaded as an over-tuned guitar string. Lindsay Hunter resists the call of murder-obsessed crime fiction vibes by subverting what we think of as the dramatic aspects of violence, death and punishment. She should be proud as hell and I can't wait for her next book." - A E Osworth
"Lindsay Hunter's Hot Springs Drive left me absolutely gutted, devastated. We often lament how long it takes us to see our parents as people, but we don't talk enough about what it feels like, what it does to us, when our parents are terrible people. With fearless, pitch-perfect prose, Hunter mines the treacherous territory of loving one's parents despite their brokenness, and of the interior lives of children who are left to pick up the pieces. This is truly brilliant, sexy, and sly storytelling." - Deesha Philyaw
"Hot Springs Drive is a haunting meditation on human desire and the monstrosity that can emerge out of ordinary hearts, on ordinary suburban streets - though in Hunter's hands, no character is ever truly ordinary. I couldn't stop turning the pages even as I wanted to slow down and savor Hunter's gorgeous sentences. A stunning achievement by a writer with a keen eye for capturing humanity in all its beautiful, wretched fullness." - Ashley Winstead
"Poignant, luscious, brutal, gorgeous, heartbreaking, and totally unique - this stunning book destroyed me, and I didn't want it to end." - Andrea Bartz
"Hot Springs Drive is a bold, unflinching exploration of female friendship, motherhood, and desire, with an unforgettable anti-heroine as its bloody, beating heart. I've read nothing like it." - Kirstin Chen
"Hot Springs Drive is a sneak attack. It has everything you could want in a book, delivered when you least expect it. Truly ugly and beautiful humanity. Electrifying chemistry in heartbreaking places. Hope when it seems all hope is lost. And mystery that goes way beyond a simple whodunnit. I'm in awe of the lives that Hunter has conjured in these pages. I mourn their lost innocence, and I ache for them now that I've reached the last page. The only balm is to read it again." - Diane Cook
"In Hot Springs Drive, Hunter mixes a perfect cocktail: precise and gritty writing, achingly and terrifyingly real characters, with a dash of mystery and darkness. Intoxicating." - Claire Fuller
"I f**ing loved this. Thrilling and gorgeously observed, Hot Springs Drive surprises with both what the characters do and what they don't do, all with sentences as tightly spring-loaded as an over-tuned guitar string. Lindsay Hunter resists the call of murder-obsessed crime fiction vibes by subverting what we think of as the dramatic aspects of violence, death and punishment. She should be proud as hell and I can't wait for her next book." - A E Osworth
"Lindsay Hunter's Hot Springs Drive left me absolutely gutted, devastated. We often lament how long it takes us to see our parents as people, but we don't talk enough about what it feels like, what it does to us, when our parents are terrible people. With fearless, pitch-perfect prose, Hunter mines the treacherous territory of loving one's parents despite their brokenness, and of the interior lives of children who are left to pick up the pieces. This is truly brilliant, sexy, and sly storytelling." - Deesha Philyaw
"Hot Springs Drive is a haunting meditation on human desire and the monstrosity that can emerge out of ordinary hearts, on ordinary suburban streets - though in Hunter's hands, no character is ever truly ordinary. I couldn't stop turning the pages even as I wanted to slow down and savor Hunter's gorgeous sentences. A stunning achievement by a writer with a keen eye for capturing humanity in all its beautiful, wretched fullness." - Ashley Winstead
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Lindsay Hunter's Hot Springs Drive