A lighthearted, magical quest setup that’s poorly served by awkward presentation.
In Arungundram Mohan’s (The Under-Ordinary Life of Mangamma Uppertoe English, 2016) middle-grade fantasy novel, a group of children search for a magic book to bring their friend back to life.
In the India of 261 B.C.E., after a particularly brutal battle to subdue a neighboring state, King Ashoka declares that he’s done with war. Peace reigns throughout his empire, and Ashoka gathers together nine learned men to form a secret society. He tasks them with writing books on various types of potentially destructive power, including alchemy, time travel, and communication with alien life, but he also orders them to hide these books, once written, lest they fall into the hands of those who would disrupt the peace. Thousands of years later, in 2006, nine children are born on the same day in an apartment building called River Falls near the city of Chennai in southern India. They grow up as close friends, doing everything together until, one day, Gopal, one of them, is killed by an errant cricket ball. The friends are grief-stricken until Leela, another member of the group, meets an old man who tells her a story about the hidden books of power—which, he says, could possibly bring someone back from the dead. Only those who are worthy can find the books; do Leela and her friends have what it takes? The premise of Arungundram Mohan’s story is wonderfully imaginative and inviting, mixing the history and mythology of ancient South Asia with a colorful portrait of modern India. However, the writing doesn’t rise to the occasion, as it’s full of awkward syntax (“The groans from the soldiers were the response to this announcement, but their discipline made them keep their calm and not cause a riot”) and odd details, as when Arungundram Mohan mentions that Gopal was killed when the cricket ball hit him in his genitals. More polished narration and more fully developed characters would have made this a highly readable middle-grade adventure.
A lighthearted, magical quest setup that’s poorly served by awkward presentation.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 142
Publisher: White Falcon Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 21, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
