Last year, when I read and reviewed Chris Bohjalian’s Hour of The Witch, I wrote “I admit it: I have been a big fan of Chris Bohjalian, ever since I read Midwives several years ago. I consider Mr. Bohjalian one of the most reliable authors I read regularly, and I always look forward to his books…Hour of the Witch (2021), Red Lotus (2020), The Flight Attendant (2018 and BTW it is WAY better than the TV series), The Sleepwalker (2016), and The Guest Room (2015) have all been 5 star reviews for me. And OMG The Sandcastle Girls was one of my all-time favorite books. So I was happy to receive a copy of Bohjalian’s latest, The Lioness, from Doubleday and NetGalley in exchange for this honest review.
And wow, does this book have something for everyone: historical fiction, African safari, Hollywood celebrities, racial conflict, animal rights, kidnapping, political intrigue – you get the idea. And for starters, I’m thinking this has the potential to make a GREAT movie.
The outline is that the Queen of Hollywood in 1964, Katie Barstow, marries her childhood friend and celebrates by taking an entourage on safari for their honeymoon to Tanzania. For most, it will be a photo safari, but some of the guests plan to stay after for a “real” hunting safari. There are multiple characters to keep track of, and the story is told in alternating points of view, plus chapters start with blurbs from fan magazines and news sources – I admit I referred to the character list in the beginning on multiple occasions.
The group seems to expect a series of leisurely days being escorted safely into the wild to see and photograph animals (including giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, lions, elephants – all of which are described beautifully. These scenes, along with the descriptions of the physical setting, are incredibly well done). Then they anticipate sitting around a campfire in the evening, being waited on by the attendants, drinking gin and tonic, etc. Then, this happens: (NOTE: this isn’t a spoiler, it is all in the publisher’s blurb – but that’s another issue) “ A kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding them into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts and Katie Barstow, Hollywood royalty, prays for a simple thing: To see the sun rise one more time.”
The various stories that emerge are complex and often evoke real emotions (in my case, both for the people and the animals). The plotting is well-done, the characters are revealed in depth (and I CARED about several of them as if they were real people), the setting is stunning as described by Bohjalian – in many ways, this is another terrific story told by a master storyteller. My only reason for making it four stars rather than 5 is that there could maybe have been fewer characters, as all of them have backstories and safari-related events to keep track of. For people like me, who tend to binge read, it may not be an issue, but more casual reading might make tracking everyone a bit of a challenge. Four stars, highly recommended.