Hot Springs Drive

Praise for Hot Springs Drive:

"Hunter's lyrical writing performs the miracles here . . . [capturing] complex humanity in stirring and gorgeous prose . . . Tragic to the core --and yet, there is beauty in the telling."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"[A] thrilling and addictive story . . . Hunter's masterwork hits all the right notes."--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Hunter has always written with a sort of ruthless courage that takes us to the bitter edge. And she's done it again . . . [Hot Springs Drive is] a devastating portrait of two damaged families and one monstrous woman you won't soon forget . . . Hunter keeps readers guessing in a book that's both thriller-taut and an immersive study of human behavior."--Library Journal, starred review

"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, author of With Teeth and Mostly Dead Things

"Poignant, luscious, brutal, gorgeous, heartbreaking, and totally unique--this stunning book destroyed me, and I didn't want it to end."--Andrea Bartz, New York Times bestselling author of The Spare Room

"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, New York Times bestselling author of Counterfeit

"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, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

"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, author of The New Wilderness

"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, author of The Last Housewife

"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, author of We Are Watching Eliza Bright

"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, author of The Memory of Animals

Praise for Lindsay Hunter:

"A novel of staggering vision and tremendous heart. On full display here are Hunter's nonpareil technique, her skillful excavation of her characters' interior landscapes -- a digging done both ruthlessly and yet with abundant mercy -- and her inspired inventiveness at the level of language."--Los Angeles Review of Books on Eat Only When You're Hungry

"This novel takes us on a road trip with an American Everyman into the heart of American hunger--for freedom, for connection, for junk food, for love. Hunter has a brilliant sense for the perfectly telling image, and her humor is so biting and smart it was almost a surprise, at the end of this engrossing book, to realize how thoroughly she had broken my heart."--Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You on Eat Only When You're Hungry

"Hunter's magical prose is the sort of thing that might happen if George Saunders and Gertrude Stein co-edited Raymond Carver. The stories vary wildly in pace and procedure, but each has its own visceral language that goes straight to the gut."--Nylon on Don't Kiss Me

"Mesmerizing . . . visceral . . . exquisite. Hunter's portraits are heartbreaking. She cares about characters we don't want to think about, issues we would rather not face. These are not lovable characters; they make you sad and sometimes sick . . . They kind of make you feel like your heart could kick the windows out."--Chicago Tribune on Don't Kiss Me

"These 26 stories, deeply internalized in neurotic lyricism, are hilarious and fully realized portraits of the disavowed . . . And in the uproarious title story, a woman obsesses over a female coworker she envies and despises. Miranda July and George Saunders come to mind, but Hunter's crass yet tender characters are unprecedented, relating fart jokes and impossible sentiment in stylized prose that mirrors their threadbare souls and ineffectual optimism."--Jonathan Fullmer, Booklist on Don't Kiss Me

"Lindsay Hunter is a dazzling talent, and with Ugly Girls she has written what will surely go down as a new American classic. Every character is complex, every scene is dense as a bullet, and every sentence pulses with electricity. Magnificent."--Cristina Henriquez, author of The Book of Unknown Americans on Ugly Girls

''I am in awe of Lindsay Hunter. Her debut novel is a canny examination of American girlhood under pressure - gritty, terrifying, and funny as hell. As Perry and Baby Girl, bound together by a friendship that is at once tender and toxic, hurtle through their world of trailer parks and stolen cars and lies, the dangerous secrets they uncover are matched only by the darkness simmering within. Ugly Girls is spiky, electric, unforgettable.''--Laura van den Berg, author of The Isle of Youth on Ugly Girls