Bennett Donovan\u2019s first book, Devil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em>, is an intelligent, entertaining short novel with two key settings, Austin\u2019s famed hipster-slacker scene and, 170 miles to the southwest, the Devil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em> State Natural Area near Rocksprings, Texas.<\/p>\n

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FICTION<\/strong>
\nBennett Donovan
\nDevil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em><\/strong>
\nIndependently published
\nPaperback, 978-1-981-08909-3, 141 pages, $8.99
\nOctober 2018<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\nBennett Donovan\u2019s first book, Devil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em>, is an intelligent, entertaining short novel with two key settings, Austin\u2019s famed hipster-slacker scene and, 170 miles to the southwest, the Devil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em> State Natural Area near Rocksprings, Texas.  Without giving away how Devil\u2019s Sinkhole<\/em> unfolds or ends, there are pointed debates over what is real and what isn\u2019t. There is a death under suspicious circumstances, plus some drugs, a gun and a sheriff\u2019s investigation that could bring big trouble. And love tries to bloom.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The book\u2019s two main characters, Conor Kemp and Emma Vega, are young creatives attempting to find their artistic voices, as well as sort out their beliefs and bearings within the fragile cocoon of contemporary \u201cAustin cool.\u201d  Conor, Donovan writes, is a struggling poet who sometimes felt certain \u201cthat life was the cruelest of practical jokes, and, in these moments, he wished he could exist outside of consciousness, like moss hanging from a limestone ledge, drenched by rain and dried by sunlight.\u201d He \u201csubsisted on menial jobs,\u201d such as handing out koozies at music festivals, \u201cthat evoked deep parental sighs.\u201d He also lived in housing with a limited future. \u201cGentrification was eating into the neighborhood like the termites devouring his baseboards. Nevertheless, in three years Conor\u2019s rent had never gone up, and for that he offered a monthly prayer for the preservation of Mrs. Flora B. Simone of Lafayette, Louisiana, the last remaining landlady indifferent to rising rents in Austin.\u201d  Emma, meanwhile, \u201cdidn\u2019t believe she had an eternal soul. In fact, she had serious doubts about whether reality existed outside her own head at all, but she perceived beauty, and she hunted it across Central Texas in a cobalt blue Corolla marked with hail dents and bumper stickers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite being a new novelist, Donovan shows skill at also creating quirky secondary characters, such as Dallas McCormick and TK, the \u201cTarantula Kid.\u201d McCormick possessed \u201can impeccable hipster resume,\u201d Donovan writes. \u201cIn the last year he had learned Brazilian jiu-jitsu, brewed a variety of pale ales, and grown a handlebar moustache. But his true calling was hosting parties in his backyard, which he had meticulously transformed into a quintessential Texas biergarten.\u201d  Meanwhile: \u201cEverybody in Rocksprings knew Cody Knippa as the \u2018Tarantula Kid,\u2019 or \u2018TK\u2019 for short. He haunted the trails outside of town scouring the scrub brush for Aphonopelma hentzi. He captured them by sliding an oversized clipboard underneath and then quickly clamping down with an aluminum pie pan\u2026.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rugged Texas landscapes gain an added glow in this debut novel. \u201cThe Hill Country rolls like an ocean,\u201d Donovan describes. \u201cWaves of limestone break one after another in a spray of white rubble. From the top of each crest the rocky whitecaps extend for miles, the horizon beckoning, the low shrubs little more than foam on the surface\u2026.\u201d  The dialogue is sharp, deep, and sometimes darkly funny. And Conor\u2019s and Emma\u2019s actions and choices reflect their hard struggles to harness creativity and move forward with their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Bennett Donovan knows that zigzag path. He has been a paralegal, a history professor, a software developer, and a consultant. He can now add \u201cnovelist\u201d to the top of his list. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bennett Donovan\u2019s first book, Devil\u2019s Sinkhole, is an intelligent, entertaining short novel with two key settings, Austin\u2019s famed hipster-slacker scene…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[872,873,874,870,817],"class_list":["post-1416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bennettdonovan","tag-devilssinkhole","tag-fiction","tag-lonestarindiereview","tag-lone-star-review"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonestar.a1professionals.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}