Not much action for the first outing, but the start of what could be an invigorating series.
In Parker’s debut thriller, a young woman learns that her estranged parents are genetically enhanced soldiers who have passed down unique abilities.
Haven Windslyn hardly knows mom Kristyn Silktin and has never even seen her father, Ben Callensworth. She lives a quiet life in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with hubby Scott and their twin boys. But a plan hatched by her wicked mother-in-law, Colleen, leaves a beaten Haven in a hospital bed. Ben, Kristyn, and a group of soldiers come to Haven’s aid, but her parents are also worried about her safety. The two were part of Sector 11, which created genetically enhanced medical soldiers, or G.E.M.S. They’re at Cell 11, the most intelligent beings on Earth—except for Haven, the only Cell 12 in existence. Sector 11 dispatches men to retrieve Haven, whom Ben and Kristyn have struggled to keep hidden. Parker’s novel opens with beaucoup intrigue: a then-pregnant Kristyn goes on the run and later evades Sector 11 by sending Haven to various parts of the world. Somewhat compellingly, the story then turns into more of a soap opera. Colleen becomes a central figure, and her unveiled animosity for Haven marks her as the unquestionable villain. Scott isn’t much better than his mother; readers will guess what’s on the horizon once young Ali Loren becomes the newest hire at Scott’s Bar and Grill. The novel really picks up once Ben and his soldiers show up in Louisiana, practically marching down hospital corridors. Ben protects Haven from anyone attempting physical harm, while Kristyn and a New York attorney she’s hired try to subvert lawyer Colleen’s legal maneuvering when trying to get Scott custody of his and Haven’s sons. The introduction of a rescue mission—this one to save a G.E.M.S. pal being held for ransom by terrorists—is a bit jarring since it happens with only a quarter of the story remaining. Yet readers get to see Haven’s capabilities, including foresight, which her mother also has, as well as another that’s seemingly all her own. Add to that a potential love interest in Joey, Haven’s guardian since she was a mere 4.
Not much action for the first outing, but the start of what could be an invigorating series.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-5054-0448-7
Page Count: 216
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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