Four women set off on journeys that will bring their lives into startling alignment, in ways that will transform them for ever.
Dana is a beautiful young bodyguard who has the expertise to disarm a bomb but cannot commit to marrying the man she loves. Jessica is a reclusive movie star and the mother of two young daughters whose fame has left her a near hostage in her own home. Vivian is a 17-year-old who has lost her way and will do anything to protect her twin babies. And Lynn is a recovering alcoholic living in isolation on a ranch, shielding herself from the mistakes of her past and a husband and daughter from whom she has long been estranged.
How their fates collide – and how that collision offers each of them a chance at redemption and renewal – is the subject of MacKenzie Bezos’s stunning novel.
Dana is a beautiful young bodyguard who has the expertise to disarm a bomb but cannot commit to marrying the man she loves. Jessica is a reclusive movie star and the mother of two young daughters whose fame has left her a near hostage in her own home. Vivian is a 17-year-old who has lost her way and will do anything to protect her twin babies. And Lynn is a recovering alcoholic living in isolation on a ranch, shielding herself from the mistakes of her past and a husband and daughter from whom she has long been estranged.
How their fates collide – and how that collision offers each of them a chance at redemption and renewal – is the subject of MacKenzie Bezos’s stunning novel.
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Reviews
This is a wonderfully original and enigmatic novel with a superb structure that weaves the four women together.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, writes Shakespeare, and MacKenzie Bezos explores that proposition through four damaged lives as they intersect over four suspenseful days. Her characters are beautifully delineated and arrestingly original. There is a sparkling, chiseled quality to her writing that puts me in mind of a master sculptor who commands the most disciplined craftsmanship in pursuit of passionate artistic ends
Bezos deftly weaves these disparate stories together and creates a moving tale of redemption.
Taut, comic novel Traps tells the intertwining stories of four women from very different backgrounds: scared-of-love Dana, recovering alcoholic Lynn, reclusive movie star Jessica, and teenage prostitute Vivian.
The four incredible women at the heart of TRAPS will linger in my psyche for a long time. Bezos's gift is to take what seem to be disparate lives, separate worlds and weave them into a single tapestry--a remarkable kind of alchemy. The real life lesson here is one of interconnectedness, of strength and courage emerging not despite, but because of adversity. TRAPS is a page turner, a satisfying read. I didn't want it to end
This cleverly orchestrated, cool-toned novel opens with Dana, a top-shelf bodyguard, fending off a dog attack without breaking a sweat. The scene serves as a kind of allegory for what Bezos is up to throughout the book: She wants to explore how women respond to threats, and do it free of emotional overreaction.
Bezos creates a sad, melancholic, nearly melodramatic world, almost too hard to stomach until we begin to see what she sees: "Life is full of things that feel like traps...Sometimes later we see that they led us where we needed to go."
Following the lives of four women, American Book Award winner Bezos offers convincing insight into different worlds - a woman in a man's world, a celebrity, an alcoholic and a teenage mother. They battle their traps until their paths intersect significantly...Rich and engaging.