Frank does an admirable job of painting a slave narrative, though there may be a bit too much of a shiny gloss painted on...
When Anakata is kidnapped from her remote African village and brought to colonial America as a slave, she must figure out how to survive while holding on to her ancient matriarchal religion in this debut novel.
Thirteen-year-old Anakata is an exalted figure in her African village; she has been chosen since birth to be her people’s queen. But when she falls prey to slave traders, she ends up on a ship bound for the New World. After an arduous voyage, which saw sickness, death and rebellion, the ship arrives in Virginia. There, she is sold to the Carter family and told this is a good thing, as they treat their slaves well (excusing the maiming of a slave who tried to escape too often, of course). Young Anakata is renamed Anna and becomes a housemaid, eventually developing a special connection to the plantation’s mistress and children. As she acclimates to life in the colonies, Anna tries to keep as much of her old life alive as possible: sneaking off to visit her secret shrine by the water, performing rituals from her past and harboring dreams of finding a way back to Africa. All the while, she is told things will be easier if she assimilates, including becoming a good Christian. In this first book in a trilogy, Frank does a smart job introducing an intelligent, likable and compassionate protagonist in Anna. While most of the secondary characters help make the world in which they live three dimensional—particularly Anna’s love interest, Gabriel, and her main mentors, Esther and Sukey—at times they fall short. This is especially evident with the relatively benign rendering of the slave-holding Carters. While there are individual scenes of brutality (notably in the voyage) and villainy (a house guest attempts to kidnap Anna away from the Carters), the absolute drudgery of life as a slave seems diminished.
Frank does an admirable job of painting a slave narrative, though there may be a bit too much of a shiny gloss painted on plantation life.Pub Date: July 14, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
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
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
