BONNIE
BY CHRISTINA SCHWARZ

I requested this because after reading "Drowning Ruth," and liking it I read and loved at the time twenty years ago, approximately her second book called "All is Vanity." I happened to be on the same sidewalk in front of our local bookstore when I recognized Christina Schwarz with a baby stroller. I was so excited and asked her if I could have her sign my two books. It was in the Summer and she mentioned that she was going to move some place warmer which I totally could relate too. I have to say that she impressed me with how kind and gracious she was. I have read her third book and liked it but not the one in between that one and, "Bonnie."

I am glad that I read "Bonnie" because I barely knew anything about Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow except that they were the infamous Bonnie and Clyde that robbed banks and died violently in a shoot out with the lawmen of their time. I learned so much more about them by reading Christina's book. I feel as though I have gotten details about them that I never knew. As always with historical fiction I find myself pondering the details wondering about my impressions of the two. Perhaps because of the vernacular of the dialogue between the Barrow's and their various *crew* I had a more difficult time enjoying the book. That is in no way Christina's fault as I imagine she was trying to stay true to the era.

Publication Date: July 7, 2020

Thank you to Net Galley, Christina Schwarz and Atria Publishing for providing me with my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#Bonnie #ChristinaSwarz #Atria #NetGalley

What makes tragic couples so romantic? Somewhere between Romeo and Juliet and Sid and Nancy, we have the legendary story of Bonnie and Clyde. Most of us know pieces of their legend from stories and movies about crisscrossing America robbing banks and running from shoot outs. Christina Schwarz has now brought Bonnie Parker to life beyond those memorable photos we've all seen. I love this type of historical fiction, so I was excited to get a pre-release copy of the book from Netgalley for a review.

While Bonnie is based on events that really happened, it is a fictional story imagining the inner life of Bonnie Parker behind the news stories. I imagine some people will contest the liberties that Christina Schwarz has taken with her Bonnie character. Since we can never know what Bonnie was thinking, I think this is a wonderful take on an icon. Bonnie Parker has risen above real life facts to be an immortalized figure and a creative archetype in that we can explore.



The story spans from Bonnie Parker as a child and the family's move to Dallas right through to her death. I loved the voice that Christina Schwarz gave to Bonnie. She was youthful, innocent and naive right up until death in a way that respected her, but also showed she was more like a girl than a woman. She romanticized her life with Clyde, but also had moments of clarity where she wanted more. It reminded me of the mentality of an abusive relationship, clearly Clyde was toxic to everyone he came around. It was tragic to see her throw her life again over and over.

My only real issue with Bonnie was how the time passed through the story. Since I'm not an expert in the Bonnie and Clyde story, I wasn't familiar with when certain events happened. I couldn't tell if things were happening days, months or years apart. I loved the era with Blanche and Buck, but it was only after looking it up that I realized that was only actually a few months. The repetition of shoot out after shoot out made me lose track of time, which was probably how they felt too.

Overall, I enjoyed Bonnie and it has probably lit a spark in me to learn more about the legend that is Bonnie & Clyde.

Bonnie and Clyde, one of the most infamous duos of all time! Folks, let's get a closer look at how it allll started, from crib to cigar-smoking, car-stealing, gun-wielding maniac.

Bonnie Parker was just a poor girl in western Texas, a rebellious yet sweet child who loved poems and romance and drama and all the other silly excitements of youth. So where and when did she become half of a pair of heinous criminals immortalized in the annals of American culture? This fictional backstory sounded like such an interesting and exciting premise—I mean, who <i>wouldn't</i> want to immerse themselves in the psyche of a crazed killer?? (Don't analyze me too much) <i>Bonnie</i>'s blurb promised the "psychological acuity of literary fiction with the relentless pacing of a thriller," but I could not, for the life of me, truly grasp the titular character's motives, and the pacing was much much slower than a thriller.

Maybe Bonnie did it for love, but I didn't feel or believe in her love. As such, she never managed to become a truly sympathetic character, rather consistently naive and selfish. Despite Christina Schwarz's solid writing style, the third-person narrative became saddled with a forgettable and underdeveloped cast of side characters; I instead felt a strong emotional detachment as Bonnie and Clyde traveled across the remote stretches of the American country. Honestly, when someone was murdered, I just...didn't care? I do appreciate that Schwarz didn't make me love 'em just to kill 'em, but murders were neither shocking nor impactful. That doesn't bode well, especially as Bonnie and Clyde's criminal exploits racked up in both frequency and severity.

Ultimately, you do get an intimate portrayal of Bonnie, a backstory that feels plausible if not incomplete. Some scenes felt unnecessary while others left me wanting. Though Schwarz initially aims to convince that Bonnie was a misguided heroine, Bonnie ends up appearing delusional at best. Even after reading the book, I ended up reading the FBI's <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/bonnie-and-clyde">website description</a> just to reignite my interest, and I still found the Bonnie Parker-Clyde Barrow case riveting in its own right. I am unhappy to say that I could not say the same for this account, though I applaud the author's research and use of sources, which lent an authenticity to the setting of America in the 20s and 30s. There's a potential for deeper insight and flexibility in a fictional portrait, but even after <i>Bonnie</i>, Miss Parker partially remains an enigma to me...

Many thanks to Netgally and Atria books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

You have read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died
If you still are in need of something to read
Here is the story of Bonnie and Clyde
- Bonnie Parker

Bonnie’s story - as in Bonnie Parker, the Bonnie of Bonnie and Clyde, a couple who were notorious for their crime sprees during the Depression era – begins shortly before she meets Clyde – not counting the Prologue, which begins at the end. But, most, if not all, of us know the story, or at least recognize who these two people are, even if the details we’ve retained of their fame is somewhat vague, we know this - they were infamous.

Growing up in western Texas, in Rowena, a small town outside of Dallas, living with her mother, this story begins in Bonnie’s youth by sharing her love of music, how she would go squishy inside, like melted ice cream hearing others cry, and her simplistic, childish view of things. As she began approaching her teen years, she had the somewhat romantic notions of what her life would be like when she grew up, but she was also very smart, and was praised for the poetry she wrote. In church, when it was time for singing, she sang so that her voice would reach God’s ears.

As she grows older, she learns write her letters, learns to read, and she begins to love words, their sound, their cadence, the way you could put them together to create something beautiful. A rhyme, a poem, verse. Like most of us, looking back on our early years, memories are vague, shapeless snippets of moments, memories more felt than remembered in a visual sense. And there’s a sense of sorrow fought off by searching for the wrong things in life, especially as Bonnie grows older, her mother worries about her finding the right boy, someone who will give her a better life. Bonnie is a dreamer, a girl whose dreams include being a movie star, a poet, and a singer. Of being known and loved by, the world. Dreams that were ’grandiose and gaudy, if predictable and insubstantial.’

In 1926, at the age of sixteen, she marries Roy, he disappears, and she takes a job as a waitress working in Dallas, staying with a friend. And this is how she meets Clyde Barrow, who proceeds to try to win her heart through a rather conventional, but charming, courtship that, as most of us already know, will prove to have a very unconventional ending. But there is, of course, more to this story.

I was impressed, after I finished reading this story, reading the author’s A Note on Sources and recommend other readers do the same.


Pub Date: 07 Jul 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books via NetGalley

Bonnie was a bright student wrote poetry, hated guns, loved babies and dreamed of being a movie star. She could have been so much more if it wasn’t for her chance meeting with Clyde Barrow. He was a smooth operator and she was smitten from the start. Her story of loving Clyde, overlooking his failings and heading down the path of lawlessness by his side is a thrilling ride.

I read this book in conjunction with the movie The Highwaymen, the movie providing a feel for Bonnie’s hometown of Cement City, a view from the law enforcement side and the poverty in which Bonnie grew up.


*will post links closer to publication date. Good story!

"She could still tell herself it was a love story."

I knew who Bonnie & Clyde were, of course, and I've seen their final photo many times, but I didn't know anything about the people and adventures behind the scenes, and it was fascinating to go there. Bonnie was smart, artistic, and strong willed. She was also very, very poor. Clyde was clever, brash, and unafraid - and even more poor. Riding shotgun through their wild romance and even wilder 'career' was compelling. I enjoyed the way the author reminded us of just how young and confused they were - Bonnie would go from dreaming of her little house with a white picket fence to spraying off a round of bullets when the need arose. Clyde, driven and bull-headed, careless about who he shot or robbed, could be conscientious enough to return borrowed dishes even in the midst of mayhem. I wanted to read about the pair, about the time period, and about this girl gangster, and I got everything I wanted.

Christina Schwarz has written another great book! A fictionalized account of the life of Bonnie Parker, this book grabs you right from the start and keeps you invested right until the end.

3 1/2 stars.

Everyone has heard of Bonnie and Clyde and most people know their basic story. But most of us don't know many of the details. And we certainly don't understand who Bonnie is and how she got caught up in a life of crime. This book was an interesting peek at Bonnie's life and did a great job at digging into why Bonnie got sucked into Clyde's crimes and why she didn't just break away when she could.

First of all, I just have to say that man, crimes were so much easier to commit in the 20s than they are today! Somehow Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks, stole from citizens, broke criminals out of jail, and straight up murdered multiple people and got away with it for so long. And instead of going into hiding, they continuously returned home to see their families. These days, video would have captured their every move, an alert would go out to the whole country, and a man hunt would commence and the pair likely would have been caught right away.

I enjoyed learning about Bonnie and especially liked seeing how her mind worked. How she went back and forth between trying to be "good" and then reveling in the "fame" of being a criminal. It was also interesting to see how these criminals justified their actions against the "laws" and how once they got sucked into a life of crime, there was really no way out unless they did time in jail or got "the chair."

My main issue with this book is that I didn't love the writing style. It felt very choppy and odd to me and I especially had a hard time with it at the beginning of the book. I still don't totally understand why the book stared the way it did and feel like so many other scenes could have been more effective. Perhaps I would have enjoyed the book more if it were told from Bonnie's POV, though I'm sure the author must have reasons for deciding not to go that route. I did get sucked into the book the more I read on and I am happy I read it, it just missed the mark a bit for me.

I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction (that exists for the sake of historical fiction) or of Bonnie and Clyde, so could’ve guessed this wasn’t made for me. But I imagine lots of readers will love this!

Genre-bending page-turner spanning true crime, thriller and biographical fiction about the infamous Bonnie Parker.

Bonnie and Clyde are truly legendary, so I couldn't wait to pick up this book. It is based on Bonnie's life who was a smart, creative young Texan when she got involved with 'bad' circles; at 16, Bonnie married a criminal who soon afterwards went to prison for robbery. So when she met Clyde, it was a whirlwind of a romance - Clyde was also a criminal, but also a sensitive and creative guy like herself.

The novel tells the story of their many escapades and robberies without sparing gruesome details. While it's certainly a fast-paced book, it's also a beautiful characters study of Bonnie and the people surrounding her. It made me ponder whether Bonnie and Clyde would have become such a symbolic couple if their circumstances had been different, if they hadn't been born in poverty and hopelessness.

The only thing that concerned me is the romanticization of the couple of thieves and murderers simply because of their romantic love and good looks. In today's context especially, they would most likely be perceived in a different light, and I don't think the novel addressed that.

Overall, fantastic book I'll think about for a long time.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

You probably know author Christina Schwarz from her fabulous novel, Drowning Ruth. It came out in the year 2000 and I remember being glued to the pages as I quickly read the story. When I saw that she wrote a book about Bonnie Parker, from the famous duo, Bonnie and Clyde, I knew I had to read it!

Bonnie was a smart, sassy, spitfire of a girl who wrote poetry and had dreams of becoming famous. When she was only sixteen, she married a man named Roy Thornton and got a tattoo on her leg. This was 1926, what a rebel! Roy went to prison for robbery and though the two never divorced, she never saw him again.

When she met Clyde Barrow, it was like she met herself in male form. He was daring and dangerous, and the two struck up a romance. As you probably know, they went on a crime spree that involved multiple car thefts, kidnapping, robberies and ended in a gruesome shoot out. The stolen Ford V-8 sedan was riddled with bullet holes.

Born in a small town in the desolate reaches of western Texas and shaped by her girlhood in an industrial wasteland on the outskirts of Dallas, Bonnie Parker was a natural performer and a star student. She dreamed of being a movie star or a singer or a poet. But her dramatic nature, contorted by her limited opportunities and her overwhelming love for Clyde Barrow, pushed her into a course from which there was no escape but death.

Infusing the psychological acuity of literary fiction with the relentless pacing of a thriller, Bonnie follows Bonnie from her bright, promising youth to her final month of shoot-outs, kidnappings, and desperate car chases through America’s hinterland in the grip of the Great Depression, as the noose of the law tightened around her. Enriched by Christina Schwarz’s extensive research in the footsteps of Bonnie and Clyde and written with her powerful sense of place and time, Bonnie is a plaintive and page-turning account of a woman destroyed by a lethal combination of longing and love.

Bonnie seemed to have a feeling about her future as she wrote this poem and gave it to her mother:

Some day they’ll go down together;
And they’ll bury them side by side,
To a few it’ll be grief—
To the law a relief—
But it’s death for Bonnie and Clyde.

I loved all the details in this book, we really got to know Bonnie. It was a fantastic look at a notorious woman who probably could have used her intelligence and passion for changing the world, instead; she got caught up in crime, and her life was tragically cut short.

You can pre-order the book here. Comes out on July 7!

I devoured this book in just a few days. Everyone seems to be interested in the story of Bonnie & Clyde. I loved this fictional account of Bonnie's life. It was a great book to cuddle up with and escape reality and go back to a different time and very different life. You're going to love this book.