Consistently eerie tales that readers aren’t likely to forget.
A debut collection mixes horror and sci-fi—short stories laden with bizarre creatures, life on other planets, and homicidal proclivities.
In the title story, a doctor gets lost on his way to visit a sickly girl residing in a small, unknown village. It sufficiently captures the ominous atmosphere prevalent in many of the book’s grim tales, which typically feature an intangible fear. For example, the protagonist of “In the Garden” takes a train ride home only to discover his town of destination isn’t one of the stops and the engineer hasn’t even heard of it. This gloomy mood carries over to the sci-fi stories as well, most of which occupy the book’s latter half. In “The Worms of Titan,” scientists of the late 22nd century discover wormlike organisms on the planet Titan. But what’s truly unsettling is that the creatures are inexplicably identical to worms that have been on Earth for millennia. Biswas’ writing is unassuming but arresting: “Bolts of lightning shot across the darkness and, out of the macabre silence that hung over the valley, I heard a horrible wail.” He often establishes his narratives with traditional genre settings: a lighthouse in “The Crystal”; a castle in “Tramp”; and an outpost on that familiar red planet in “2038: A Mars Odyssey.” The memorable tales, however, trek into dark, sometimes-surreal territory. The main character in “Sedgefield’s Diary,” for one, is a Boston accountant who obsessively chronicles his humdrum life on an hourly basis. After he misses an entire day of recording his activities, his diary fills the pages seemingly on its own. Likewise, “The Lake of Flies” is, at first glance, a conventional tale of murder. But the killer and victim are immediately revealed, with the story then centering on the anticipation of the forthcoming homicide and its aftermath (Will the murderer pay for his crime?). The collection ends with “Puff,” which, contrary to its title, generates an explosive conclusion.
Consistently eerie tales that readers aren’t likely to forget.Pub Date: May 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-945646-41-6
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Rogue Star Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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