Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: "Hidden" was pretty disappointing. On page 14 of this terribly short and underdeveloped novel, we find out Maggie perjured herself and lied about who beat her. She knows it wasn't her husband (which hand did he use?), and yet somehow she continues to believe this even though she admits it isn't true. How very bizarre. The author never bothers to explain how, even though she knows it wasn't her husband, she thinks that it was. It makes no sense.The author brings in flat characters to prop up his story, with people that seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. What's the point of the grandmother? Fred Cummings, the hateful neighbor who threatens her in the bar? Her bizarre next door neighbor, the old bachelor who treats Maggie like a little sister (how tired is that stock character?). I picked this book up hoping for something that would really get us into the mind of this woman, whose story could have been an interesting one. Instead, we get this uninspired story that fails to actually tell any kind of story. The only thing remotely interesting about this book is that the male author tells a woman's story from the first person (and that's been done before, by much more talented writers). Save your money and buy a book worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Intense and Dark
Review: A young attractive wife was beaten by her husband and a day or so later he savagely battered her to the point of giving her a brain injury that caused her to become epileptic.....or did he?
This novel is told by Maggie, the wife. Her telling switches back and forth from the events of 1992 when she started dating her husband to the summer of 2002 and back to 1996 when he struck her at least once and she was beaten. She testified against Nate, her husband, and he landed in jail. She landed amongst dark memories in his ancestral home where the assault happened.
In 2002, she is brain-injured and appears to have plateaued to a point where she can function. She then learns that another man in prison has confessed to the crime of beating her and her recollections come into question. She tries to face mountains of trancripts and seas of memories to be sure she was right six years before. As she does so she becomes more and more unhinged.
Mr. Jaskunis keeps the tension flowing consistently. Maggie is so haunted and depressed, a reader will want to walk - no run - away from her the same way she keeps wanting to run away from her life. However, Mr. Jaskunis skillfully keeps the reader engrossed.
The story is well-told. The author switches back and forth between the underlying relationship and events and the present well. Every new day brings more recollections/recountings that weigh down the narrator.
The characters are deep and well-portrayed. Obviously, there is sympathy for the victim start to finish. However, at the end, one must also feel sympathy for the husband, even though he was unlikeable almost from the first - even before the reader knew he was the one Maggie knew had so brutally assaulted her. The portrayal of Maggie's angst is compellingly told. Her elderly neighbor and a reporter are both integral parts of the supporting cast and portrayed equally well.
This is no light read. Rather it is an intense story of someone suffering a closed head injury and the horror of what she thought was an assault by her husband and then trying to reconcile the truth, that it was not him after both their lives have been ruined. Recommended if you don't mind being depressed by a terrifically written book.
Rating: 
Summary: What a book...
Review: Hidden is the story of Maggie, a woman who is on the journey of her life to try and learn the truth about what really happened to her 6 years earlier. Maggie always believed that her husband Nate brutally attacked her one summer night and left her for dead, but was recently told by the prosecution that he has been released from jail because another inmate admitted to the crime. What transpires in Hidden is a slow but wonderfully written story of learning the truth, dealing with spousal abuse, and finding a way to face the truth and move on with the healing process. Hidden is not my usual kind of book, but I am very glad that I read it. Jaskumas has the rare ability to write from a believable womens point of view. Keep your eyes on this author.
Rating: 
Summary: Hidden a Novel of Wonder
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book, it keep you wondering what would happen next. The characters where also great, they keep me glued to the story. I was wondering what would happen to Maggie if her husband found out she was visiting her boss at his home. Also, I wondered were would they have sex at next, and why did Nates mother leave his father. Will Nate have sex with his father secretary and what type of trip will Nate and Maggie take. Throughout the book I wondered who actually rape Maggie, was it Nate or was it someone in the file of Ben Hodges notebook. I wondered if Nate would come back to New Harmony to retaliate against Maggie or will Maggie find peace within her self. All these things kept me glued and wondering what will happen next and that is why this book was a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: a slog to get through--not highly recommended
Review: i really wanted to like this book but i left it feeling very unsatisfied. the premise of this book is compelling--a battered woman sifting through her specious memories, trying to piece together the facts of a cloudy violent night, but the story itself was unsatisfying. the plot, which details the early years Maggie, the narrator, had with her husband and the aftermath of a mysterious attack on her, drags to the point of being boring. the language jaskunas uses isn't particularly evocative or memorable (with some occasional exceptions) and this becomes a real issue in a story this unnecessarily stretched out and static. the characters, generally, are forgettable--borderline stereotypes who exchange unnaturally earnest dialogue and nate and maggie's relationship, which constitutes much of the meat of the book, is generic and predictable; i wanted to care about them but couldn't. the strength of the book i would say is its interest in the porous nature of memory. jaskunas captures the tenuousness of maggie's grasp on reality well (that he shifts between 1996 and 2002 over and over helps create this sense of disorientation) but my pleasure in experiencing her blind spots and her doubts was ultimately outweighed by the book's other problems. might have worked better as a novella or long story.
Rating:
Summary: I Found Out
Review: Paul Jaskunas has a great use of language. His descriptions of Maggie's confused mind are illuminating and deftly crafted. In one passage, he describes Hodge, the inmate who has confessed to the assault, "His legs are like dogwoods, spindly and delicate, his body impossibly thin." (p.220) Maggie's romance with Nate seems like a storybook romance. She falls for this confident redheaded college man and marries young. Then her world starts to unwind as Nate treats her more like a possession rather than a person. It's a great psychological portrait. Unfortunately, the flipping back and forth from the present to flashbacks slows the novel's pace rather than builds the suspense. In the end, what seemed like it was a race with destiny becomes only a race to Maggie's next headache. By the time we come to the end, I'm glad she's moving to Indianapolis and wondering -- like her mother & therapist, Rita -- what took so long. The neighbor character of Manny is sweetly drawn, but on the whole a promising book doesn't tell enough of a story. What Jaskunas does, he does well. Enjoy that!
Rating:
Summary: E
Review: The tale of a woman in her early twenties who is brutally attacked. She is convinced it is her husband who has done it. After he has served his prison sentence, another man confesses to the crime and has detailed knowledge of the crime. The main character questions her memory and her past. A very well done story but I do not think it ranks with the best of the year.
Rating: 
Summary: Hidden by Paul Jaskunas
Review: This book called Hidden by Paul Jaskunas is about a woman named Maggie Wilson; she believes so much it was her husband that assaulted her that one summer night. She confessed against him and sent him to jail. Six years later she's informed that an inmate has confessed to her assault. This confession cause Maggie to go through a great confusion by not knowing what or who to believe. Throughout the book, Maggie does everything she can to remember what really happened to her and why out of all people, her husband is the one she believed assaulted her.
Rating:
Summary: Dying to remember
Review: This book was a very good book because it had a lot of drama in it and it was full of surprises. It's one of those books where you don't want to stop reading it because your afraid you'll miss something. It's an emotional struggle within a young woman by the name of Maggie that is abused by her husband Nate throughout their relationship. When Maggie was found almost killed in the summer of 1996, she believed it to be her husband Nate. Six years later, a man by the name of Ben hodge confesses that he was the one who almost killed her. Now Maggie is faced with, who really was the one that attacked her that night and almost killed her? You have to read this book to find out.
Rating:
Summary: Great change of pace read
Review: this is a different book in many ways: a fiction thriller with a twist of plot and the inclusion of the domestic violence theme also ranks it as a 'domestic violence' book as well. Entertainment with a touch of insight and education woven in.
|
