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When the Killing's Done

When the Killing's Done A Novel

T.C. Boyle — 2012
T.C. Boyle's most powerful and fully realized work yet-"terrifically exciting and unapologetically relevant" (The Washington Post). Principally set on the wild Channel Islands off the coast of California, T.C. Boyle's new novel is a gripping adventure with a timely theme. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist spearheading the efforts to save the islands' native creatures from invasive species. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a local businessman who is fiercely opposed to the killing of any animals whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert her plans. As their confrontation plays out in a series of scenes escalating in violence, drama, and danger, When the Killing's Done relates a richly humane tale about the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world.
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Reviews

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Deyana@dawndeydusk
3 stars
Sep 11, 2022

I don't have anything particularly witty to say about this title, but though this book took me a second to get into it, once I began getting immersed, flipping through the pages felt as natural as the certain repetition of the waves. Here's a few quotes to serve as a buoy for my memory in years to come: "He throws it right back at her. 'How can you talk about being civil when innocent animals are being tortured to death? Civil? I'll be civil when the killing's done and not a minute before. Those rats--'" (63) "Guilt--that's what defines her usage. Guilt over being alive, needing things, consuming things, turning the tap or lighting the flame under the gas burner," (191) "She can hear the falseness in her voice, the amateur theatricality--and why does it always seem as if she's hiding something when she's speaking with her own mother?" (235) "It's a clear high day, the sky cupped overhead like the lid of a bell jar," (367)