A gripping, disturbing tale about the importance of love, acceptance and letting kids be kids.
A young girl’s paranormal gift—or is it a curse?—of sight makes her the target of a murderous madman in Landry’s (Mirror Deep, 2012) shadowy thriller.
Ten-year-old Emma inherited psychic powers from her paternal grandmother, Dottie, including the ability to see into the past and future and have out-of-body experiences. But the craft is a source of shame for her hotheaded father, who has made Emma suppress her skills and speak of them to no one. Her talents don’t stay secret for long, though. When Emma unintentionally sees a serial killer of young girls and reveals herself to him, she becomes his next intended victim. Suspecting something amiss, teacher Christina Tyler contacts her ex-boyfriend, detective Hank Apple, and Emma reluctantly begins to help him on the dangerous case. Landry’s characters are beautifully written, full of subtleties and complications. Emma in particular is superbly drawn—stoic, clever, yet still a child who will curl up with a teddy bear for comfort. Even when overwhelmed by fear, she displays an unassuming strength that makes her seem much older than her years. In fact, her maturity often surpasses that of the squabbling adults around her, especially her disappointing parents; her volatile father and bland mother largely remain unsympathetic even as they attempt to make up for the many years of not supporting their daughter. Emma’s aunt and maternal grandmother step up as dependable advocates for Emma, as do Christina and Hank, but all four are still flawed in their own ways. Christina and Hank find that their feelings for each other are rekindled as they fight to protect Emma’s secret while hunting down the crazed murderer. But go-getter Hank struggles with work-life balance and emotional vulnerability, and bighearted Christina has trouble forgetting a past infidelity, so theirs is a deliciously clumsy stumble toward a relationship. The stakes are high in this dark novel, but the story never feels overdone thanks to Landry’s nimble balancing act between supernatural mystery and stirring character drama.
A gripping, disturbing tale about the importance of love, acceptance and letting kids be kids.Pub Date: April 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0996044196
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Book Beatles LLC
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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