Fans of the macabre will enjoy this novel approach to a timeless struggle.
Set during the Great Irish Famine of the mid-1800s, first-time author Kessler’s tale of horror centers on an unforgiving landlord and his quest for the “golden soul.”
Mr. Green is no ordinary blackguard motivated by typical vices. He is the immortal Lucifer, as manipulative, cunning and deceptive as portrayed in any version of scripture. Describing himself as God’s lesser son, “the forgotten one,” Green obsesses over the golden soul. This “most precious of Father’s creations” will grant Green the gift of prophecy, bringing him back into God’s good graces. Kessler, who describes his debut as “A Spiritual Horror Story for Secular Readers,” draws upon a wide variety of religious traditions and throws them in a blender. The resulting puree of beliefs and moralities is spread liberally among the book’s characters as they struggle with the eternal tension of good versus evil. Whether sociopathic, morally ambivalent or filled to the brim with faith, each player ultimately comes face-to-face with the cheerily malevolent Green. But characters exercise their own free will to determine how these meetings end and the role they play in Green’s master plan. Although he is not above applying coercion to sway their decisions, even Green knows he must abide by the rules of the universe. He cannot force anyone to do his will; they must choose it for themselves. Part horror story, part science fiction, Kessler’s title uses literary techniques reminiscent of Stephen King: The ordinary quickly becomes the extraordinary, bizarre, supernatural and frightening. As the novel inches toward the final confrontation, the narrative offers an alternative view of God and his divine connection to humanity. At this point, however, the prose adopts a sermonizing tone and it becomes less clear if Kessler is writing a story or his own religious manifesto.
Fans of the macabre will enjoy this novel approach to a timeless struggle.Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-61798-013-8
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Wild Child Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 18, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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