by Anne Elisabeth Stengl ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2013
This complex tale with subtle Christian subtexts is best for fantasy fans who appreciate watching each unique piece of an...
The fifth volume in the acclaimed Tales of Goldstone Wood series keeps the mythic storytelling coming.
To meet her fiance, Alistair, the nephew and heir of Earl Ferox, Lady Leta travels to Gaheris Castle, where she begins taking reading lessons from the Chronicler, a reclusive dwarf who urges her to think for herself. She practices her reading with old nursery rhymes that, to her horror, begin to come true. On his deathbed, the earl makes a game-changing announcement, recognizing the Chronicler—Florien—as his son and rightful heir just as demons arrive intent on annihilating the House of Gaheris. Soon, a small band of travelers—Florien, Alistair, Mouse (a young woman on her own spiritual quest) and Eanrin (an immortal being)—sets out to make the nursery rhymes–turned-prophecies come to pass. Florien is to reclaim his ancestor’s sword and use it to slay the evil Dragonwitch. Readers will need to be patient, as the ambitious plot develops unhurriedly, and characters’ true identities and motivations are only gradually unraveled. Plot development is prioritized here, yet there is some admirable character development, particularly in Leta and Mouse, and explorations of the themes of destiny and forgiveness.
This complex tale with subtle Christian subtexts is best for fantasy fans who appreciate watching each unique piece of an enormous puzzle fall precisely into its place. (Fantasy. 13 & up)Pub Date: July 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7642-1027-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Bethany House
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2013
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by C.S. Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1942
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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by Heather Morris ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 4, 2018
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
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An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
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