An absurdly humorous novel of the paranormal whose enthusiasm and profundity make it truly exceptional.
In Corley’s debut fantasy/comedy, a ghost learns that the afterlife has its own unique set of pitfalls, including direct threats from demons.
When Jonah Preston sunk all his money into his Austin, Texas, home, he certainly didn’t anticipate that it would be haunted. The ghost of the previous owner, Willard Hensch, wants him and his best friend and roommate, Maxim “Max” Alvarez, to get out—and no amount of Ouija-board negotiations can change his mind. Willard even threatens murder, and sure enough, Jonah awakens one morning to find that he’s no longer in the corporeal world. Adjusting to the ghost life is initially a breeze: he figures out how to move physical objects, finds a way to communicate with Max, and even befriends an angel named Seph. His real troubles begin after he helps a few other spirits move on to “the next place.” This connects him with the Psy-kicks, a team of Ghostbusters-like paranormal investigators (soon including Max) that Jonah legitimizes by ensuring that unruly ghosts are irrefutably gone. Unfortunately, Jonah’s notoriety among other spirits catches the attention of demons. Willard continues to demand that Jonah and Max get out of his house, and he teams up with dangerous partners who are more than happy to take Jonah on. Corley’s tale is largely played for laughs; Jonah and Max drop frequent one-liners and are undaunted by the ones that fail (“Look, they can’t all be gems,” Jonah asserts). But the story also boasts its share of sincere moments. Jonah’s choice to help ghosts move on, for example, is a purely selfless one, and a lengthy final-act discussion of angels and demons is surprisingly insightful. Although it’s clear that he has some natural skills as a ghost, the way that he masters one ability is disappointingly easy, involving him recalling the 1990 film Ghost and the Japanese anime Dragon Ball Z. The story is thoroughly resolved but also offers a tease for potential sequels.
An absurdly humorous novel of the paranormal whose enthusiasm and profundity make it truly exceptional.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-04841-2
Page Count: 344
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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