The Invaders, Karolina Waclawiak
The Invaders, Karolina Waclawiak
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The Invaders

Author: Karolina Waclawiak

Narrator: Bernadette Dunne

Unabridged: 6 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/07/2015

Synopsis

Over the course of a summer in a wealthy Connecticut community, a forty-something woman and her college-age stepson’s lives fall apart in a series of violent shocks.Cheryl has never been the right kind of country-club wife. She’s always felt like an outsider, and now, in her mid-forties—facing the harsh realities of aging while her marriage disintegrates and her troubled stepson, Teddy, is kicked out of college—she feels cast adrift by the sparkling seaside community of Little Neck Cove, Connecticut. So when Teddy shows up at home just as a storm brewing off the coast threatens to destroy the precarious safe haven of the cove, she joins him in an epic downward spiral.The Invaders, a searing follow-up to Karolina Waclawiak’s critically acclaimed debut novel, How to Get into the Twin Palms, casts a harsh light on the glossy sheen of even the most “perfect” lives in America’s exclusive beach communities. With sharp wit and dark humor, The Invaders exposes the lies and insecurities that run like fault lines through our culture, threatening to pitch bored housewives, pill-popping children, and suspicious neighbors headlong into the suburban abyss.

About Karolina Waclawiak

Karolina Waclawiak received her BFA in screenwriting from USC School of Cinematic Arts and her MFA in fiction from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Glamour, the Rumpus, and the Believer, where she is also an editor. She lives in Los Angeles.

About Bernadette Dunne

Bernadette Dunne is the winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and has twice been nominated for the prestigious Audie Award. She studied at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Studio Theater in Washington, DC, and has appeared at the Kennedy Center and off Broadway.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lark on January 30, 2019

While reading this novel I realized that the adjectives book reviewers use don't make a lot of sense. If you were to enjoy reading The Invaders, for example, you might call it "tight," as a complement, as in "a tight novel about the unraveling lives of a country-club-set woman and her stepson." If y......more

Goodreads review by AmberBug on February 24, 2016

www.shelfnotes.com review Dear Reader, Take a look at that first sentence... it says it all. "When Jeffrey's first wife told me he had a voracious appetite for women, I assumed she was just trying to be vindictive." This is a story centered around the rich Connecticut shoreline snobs, the ones who care......more

Goodreads review by Trzcionka on June 27, 2022

2,5/5 Opis fabuły mówi wszystko odnośnie tego o czym jest ta książka. Sęk w tym, że jednocześnie wywołuje wrażenie, że będzie to coś głębszego niż jest. Jak się tak dłużej zastanowić to ta książka to takie trochę rozwinięte streszczenie - ale nie w głąb, żadnych warstw tu nie ma, tylko w szerz i to n......more

Goodreads review by Beth on February 01, 2016

Another 2016 Tournament of Books entry. This for me was okay, but has left me scratching my head a bit. The book is filled with unlikeable characters behaving badly, typically something right up my alley. However, in this case a fair amount of the bad behavior just wasn't believable. This held my in......more

Goodreads review by Carol on September 30, 2015

***3.5 Stars***......more

Quotes

“A scathing look at privileged people trapped by their own choices but unable to imagine an alternative to their misery.” Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author

“A blazing wonder of a novel…As whip smart and cunning as it is poignant and mysterious.” Megan Abbott, Edgar-winning author of Dare Me

“A perfect, and perfectly dark, beach read told with LA-noir style but set in tony country-club Connecticut.” Vanity Fair

“Fiercely witty…The Invaders chronicles what happens when one woman risks looking beyond the manicured lawns and cozy cottages to consider what her life has become…With deft humor and insight, Waclawiak reveals her characters’ long-hidden vulnerabilities. The Invaders asks us to contemplate what happens to people’s hearts when their lives are lived on the surface. What happens to love?” O, The Oprah Magazine

“Waclawiak writes about the power of sexual currency and what happens to a woman’s identity when she begins to feel sexually invisible.” Millihelen.com

“Waclawiak’s novel exposes the underpinnings of Little Neck Cove for what they are: paltry, superficial façades that poorly mask any semblance of charity, tolerance, or humanity…With its spot-on characterizations, droll dialogue, and staccato pacing, Waclawiak’s dark satire is a trenchant indictment of the country-club set tempered by compassionately rendered portraits of two of its not entirely unwitting victims.” Booklist

“Witty, dark, and honest, this novel tells the hard—but hilarious—truths about aging in America, dysfunctional relationships, and suburban vices.” Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins

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