A sexy and chilling tale that combines Native American myth, gothic horror, and mystery. Writer and documentary filmmaker Carr, a Navajo and Lugana Pueblo Indian, provides a new twist on the clash of cultures between Indians and Europeans. The Europeans here are vampires, asleep for over a century and waking up in modern-day Albuquerque, out of time and out of place, unfamiliar with present realities. Falke, the leader of the vampire coven, seduces and puts the bite on Melissa Roanhorse, an Indian teenager. When the girl and her mother, whom she despises, turn up missing after a particularly violent outburst by Melissa at school, the police suspect the girl has done in her mother and taken off. Melissa's teacher, Diana Logan, however, doesn't believe it and sets out to find her pupil. She enlists the aid of Michael Roanhorse, the girl's grandfather. As the pair hunt for Melissa and come closer to Falke and his two ``brides,'' Michael, who, after the death of his wife had turned his back on traditional ways and forgotten the songs his mother sang, comes closer to his Native heritage. He will have to recover the old traditions—and quickly—if the forces of evil are to be routed and Melissa recovered. Carr deftly juxtaposes the European vampire legend with the Navajo myth of Monster Slayer, the son of Changing Woman (a primal being whose existence is still attested to by the changing seasons). He keeps a tight grip on the plot and holds the reader's interest by constantly shifting focus among the main characters. Carr pushes the boundaries of Native American literature, creating an entertaining and erotic first novel that could appeal to fans of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire.
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8061-2707-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Univ. of Oklahoma
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
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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