Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




Fiction & Literature Book Reviews Coming Soon (page 8)


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Cover art for SEA CREATURES
FICTION
Released: July 30, 2013

"Ebbs and flows."
Daniel's (Stiltsville, 2011) novel, about a woman coping with her broken family and her husband's and son's illnesses, contains an undercurrent that surges in parts but can't quite manage to maintain its grip on the reader. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE SKULL AND THE NIGHTINGALE
FICTION
Released: Aug. 1, 2013

"A tale of morals, intriguingly told."
A Faustian bargain drives the narrative in Irwin's novel, but the devil's identity is ambiguous. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE SOUND OF THINGS FALLING
FICTION
Released: Aug. 1, 2013

"Toward the end of the novel, Yammara comments that Maya wrinkles her brow "like someone who's on the verge of understanding something," and this ambiguous borderland where things don't quite come into coherent focus is where most of the characters remain."
An odd coincidence leads Antonio Yammara, a law professor and narrator of this novel from Latin American author Vásquez (The Informers, 2009, etc.), deep into the mystery of personality, both his own and especially that of Ricardo Laverde, a casual acquaintance of Yammara before he was gunned down on the streets of Bogotá. Read full book review >
Cover art for BREWSTER
FICTION
Released: Aug. 5, 2013

"Flawed, but unmistakably the work of an accomplished writer."
Slouka's third novel, set mainly in 1968 in hardscrabble Brewster, N.Y., is a departure from his last, the dark and lyrical World War II book The Visible World (2007). Read full book review >
Cover art for THE COLLINI CASE
FICTION
Released: Aug. 5, 2013

"It is the care von Schirach takes with history, with the return of the repressed, that makes this short book remarkable."
Because the murderer makes no attempt to hide his crime, the mystery is the motive in this concise legal thriller. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE GLASS OCEAN
FICTION
Released: Aug. 5, 2013

"The prose often goes over the top and stays there. Baker has gone all-in to capture Carlotta's voice. This decision is admirable and risky. It is excessive, expressionistic. One will either love it or tire of it."
Baker's ambitious debut novel features a Victorian setting, mismatched lovers, dysfunctional families, doomed journeys of discovery, and the art and manufacture of glass. Read full book review >
Cover art for TUMBLEDOWN
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"An impressive work."
A book that reminds readers that the wages of sin are myriad and include the opportunity to find oneself. Read full book review >
Cover art for QUEEN'S GAMBIT
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"With not much plot to drive her narrative, Fremantle's emphasis is on intrigue, character portraits and the texture of mid-16th-century life. Solid and sympathetic."
Once more unto the six wives of Henry VIII, this time for the story of Katherine Parr, the older wife with healing skills who survived the king. Read full book review >
Cover art for ASK BOB
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"A melancholy yet redeeming story of life and love, loss and redemption."
In his latest novel, Gethers (Norton, the Loveable Cat that Travelled the World, 2011, etc.) spins a modern tale of betrayal and reconciliation, failure, forgiveness and family. Read full book review >
Cover art for LOVE AND LAMENT
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"Though slow to start, an appealing historical novel that blends gothic and plainly romantic themes."
A North Carolina girl is the unlikely survivor of a host of tribulations between the Civil War and World War I. Read full book review >
Cover art for IT HAPPENS IN THE DARK
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"Mallory fans won't be disappointed in her latest adventure, even though sections of the book could have been tighter."
The latest novel in the Detective Kathy Mallory series. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE RATHBONES
FICTION
Released: Aug. 6, 2013

"Chicago-based author Clark seduces with her vision and her prose but disappoints with non-epic storytelling."
Drawing on Edgar Allan Poe, Homer and Herman Melville, an ambitious saga of lineage and whaling in which Mercy and Mordecai Rathbone embark on a circular voyage in pursuit of their identities. Read full book review >