A captivating examination of humanity’s fear of the unknown, with hints of sci-fi and fantasy.
Donovan (Conspiracy Films, 2011, etc.) ventures into fiction with this story of baffling stone globes suddenly appearing around the world and the ways in which the populace responds.
Ex-cop Rick Ballantine may have stumbled on a topic for the reality TV show pilot he’s shooting, Confirmation: Investigations of the Unexplained. More specifically, he crashes into it: a 15-foot-wide stone globe sitting on a gravelly California road. It’s the type of unexplained event the Confirmation crew fancies, especially as there’s no indication of anyone transporting the globe to that spot. Skeptics, like the local authorities, are sure there’s a reasonable explanation, even when an identical sphere appears in New Jersey. But when multiple globes crop up worldwide, civilians and conspiracy theorists flock to the sites. Rick and his colleagues—including journalist Cornelia Oxenburg and the show’s academic, Dan Knight— become the center of the media’s attention for their initial discovery. Debates on the nature of the globes are incessant, with assorted reactions: Some believe they’re a sign of aliens while others see them as a government subterfuge. But soon come the “hum-experiencers,” people who say they can hear a buzzing sound emitting from the globes. Is it a message or simply a series of unfounded claims? Despite the possibly supernatural globes, Donovan’s leisurely paced novel concentrates on the human element. Citizens in different countries, for example, presuming governments are hiding the truth of extraterrestrials, stage sometimes-violent protests. There’s likewise an exhaustive backstory; the Chinese triads’ involvement in a globe-related explosion precipitates the discussion of a 1970s Bruce Lee–imitating film star that’s entertaining but digressive. Nevertheless, the tale is at its best when presenting diverse forms of media; most chapters conclude with a newspaper article, while characters relay information via blogs, podcasts, and social media. These are sometimes-comical: DJs on a vapid radio show seem irritated that some of the globes appear outside the U.S. The ending provides a few clarifications and lingering questions for readers to ponder.
A captivating examination of humanity’s fear of the unknown, with hints of sci-fi and fantasy.Pub Date: July 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62989-950-3
Page Count: 326
Publisher: World Castle Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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