Gory fun thanks to the narrator’s appealing voice.
Facing a zombie apocalypse, a man journals about his survival in this first book of Philbrook’s (The Failed Coward, 2014, etc.) eight-part saga.
Narrator Adrian Ring describes himself as “moderately successful” at life: He had a job, a condo, a girlfriend, a cat. But by the time readers meet him after the zombie apocalypse, Adrian has lost almost all of his old life. Now, instead of his girlfriend, he’s facing dangerous zombies; instead of his condo, he has a fortified school campus; instead of his job, he has a collection of weapons; and instead of his cat—well, good news, he still has his cat. Through it all, Adrian writes in a casual, humorous style that doesn’t spare the expletives: “I know, this shit is grody, but I’m recording history for posterity, so fuck you if you’re sensitive and offended.” Interspersed throughout the diary are occasional stories from other characters’ points of view, e.g., the clerk who sold Adrian his guns and who loses his will to live. Though not as humorous or personal as Adrian’s diary, these related stories broaden the view of the apocalypse. Adrian is an amusing and realistic protagonist in some ways, as when he expresses a desire to update his Facebook status; at the same time, he’s heroic yet likably nerdy enough to survive a zombie apocalypse. He’s the book’s most compelling part: The zombies are rather typical, the plot is somewhat episodic, and the end of the book doesn’t feel like any kind of grand resolution. But for readers who like zombie fiction, it’s nonetheless an amusing ride thanks to Adrian’s being the tour guide. Occasionally, he even drops the humor and gives a glimpse of real feeling; while anti-zombie preparation is fun, Adrian is more engaging when he mourns over the loss of childhood wonder and innocence.
Gory fun thanks to the narrator’s appealing voice.Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2013
ISBN: 978-1493568710
Page Count: 266
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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