A futuristic tale with some capable writing but only surface sophistication.
In this YA sci-fi novel, everyone must choose a personal destiny after examining three options—but a young woman pursues free will.
A few generations from now, the world is happier and less destructive. An implanted microchip, explains narrator Cassia Bellerose, “tracks our response to every decision we’ve ever made, and stores that data until we go to the Trivium at eighteen years old.” At the Trivium, everyone is presented three possible futures that are the consequences of decisions made so far and must select one. Because no one remembers the Trivium experience, it’s something of a mystery, and Cassia—almost 18 and in her last week of high school—wonders whether it’s possible to change one’s fate. But she’s an organized planner and likes predictability; she wants to become a doctor and marry her boyfriend, Gunner. Lately, though, Cassia’s been having vivid dreams of a brown-haired boy; in one, they share a hammock, reading books. When she runs into the boy of her dreams, Ethan Rivers, they share an instant connection—and it turns out he’s been having the same dreams. Something odd happens at their Triviums, and though their paths diverge, Cassia and Ethan could solve the puzzle of their separation (the girl’s mother has a secret that could help) and find a way to change fate. In her novel, Nguyen (From Start to Fiction, 2018) offers an intelligent bookworm heroine whose love of Jane Austen will likely strike a chord in readers. The science part of the fiction, involving string theory and a rift in space-time, gets a somewhat reasonable explanation, though how the Trivium provides not just possible but guaranteed futures is murky. The puzzle aspect lends some interest, important because beneath the window dressing, the story rests on that stale plot device, a love triangle. There’s little suspense about Cassia’s choice: Gunner is “my friend. Ethan lights a fire inside me I never want to quench.” The work seems rather adolescent in its ideas about the world, illustrated by Cassia’s amazing, near-instant success as a writer.
A futuristic tale with some capable writing but only surface sophistication.Pub Date: March 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73205-592-6
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Two Sparrows Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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