by Chase Novak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2012
There may well be a massive popular readership for this gruesome tale (but not Scott Spencer’s readers).
A cautionary tale about the perils of fertility treatments turns into a gore fest for the strong of stomach.
Now that Stephen King has earned acceptance as a literary novelist, what has been published as the debut novel by Novak represents a turnabout—a literary novelist of some renown and commercial success tries his hand at becoming Stephen King. The publisher doesn’t conceal that the novel was written under a pseudonym by Scott Spencer (whose A Ship Made of Paper, 2003, was a National Book Award nominee), but fans who appreciate his typical balance of thematic depth and storytelling will recognize the marketing wisdom of publishing this under a different name. While he remains a fine writer, this descent “into the medical hell of infertility” is most noteworthy for its shock value and for a few truly spectacular deaths (which should challenge the special effects within the movie to which this plainly aspires). Alex and Leslie have everything—luxurious Manhattan domicile, fine jobs, each other—except a baby. Leslie seems more willing to adopt, but Alex is desperate to try anything. If he weren’t, he might have had second thoughts after they traveled to see the mysterious doctor in Slovenia and were greeted by a dog whose “eyes are imbecilic with avidity, and a smell of meat rises from his flanks and loins....But they have come too far, and gone to too much trouble to turn back now.” Bad choice. The doctor’s assistant proceeds to inform them that he has had “great, great success—using tissue from some of the most vigorous and fertile beings on earth.” Another red flag, but they proceed at Alex’s insistence, subsequently indulge in some spectacularly animalistic sex, have twins (or more?) and develop a taste for rodents, household pets, fellow human beings and perhaps even their offspring. The twins are a little weird (and they discover a tribe of similar mutants), but it’s the parents who become monsters.
There may well be a massive popular readership for this gruesome tale (but not Scott Spencer’s readers).Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-19856-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
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by Chase Novak
by Leigh Bardugo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
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New York Times Bestseller
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
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by Kevin Hearne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2020
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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