A sharply written and delightfully unnerving tale.
In Ayers’ debut horror novel, six strangers on a spiritual journey turn on one another while facing a terrifying menace in the woods.
A handful of people meet in Pennsylvania to go on a trip organized by a company called Mystic Tours. The clients include brokerage CEO Ken Berman and personal trainer Gabriella “Gaby” Moreno as well as Beverly Sutton, Coop, Lamar, and the decidedly unsociable Wade. John Lightfoot, a Shawnee member of the Chalakatha tribe, is the group’s guide on what’s billed as a weeklong “quest for a new you.” He drives them all to a remote campsite in the wilderness, and that evening, each experiences a vision during a purification ceremony in the sweat-lodge wigwam that also acts as their sleeping quarters. By morning, however, John has mysteriously vanished, along with his van. Everyone is understandably shaken by this turn of events, and Wade exacerbates their unease with his solo hunting excursions and violent tendencies. But nighttime proves to be even worse, as a strange, ominous black mass stalks the forest, and only light appears to keep it at bay. The group struggles to find a way out of the woods and a method of communicating with the outside world. But it isn’t long before they descend into a vicious spiral of deception, accusations, and betrayal. Ayers’ characters are a motley bunch who each have very different motivations; Coop, for example, is initially excited to go on what will be his second spiritual retreat, and Ken is solely interested in the survival training’s physical components. Everyone harbors secrets, as well, which range from the tragic to the appalling. These all gradually come to light, which keeps the pace brisk and opens up numerous plot possibilities. Although Wade is unsettling from the beginning, other group members also prove to be volatile or have unexpectedly shady pasts. The black mass, meanwhile, is a persistent threat that Ayers describes in proficient, dreamlike passages: “the fog-like haze of steam rising from the endless swirls of ash decorating the landscape.” Many readers will likely be able to predict the ending, but an earlier plot twist is genuinely surprising.
A sharply written and delightfully unnerving tale.Pub Date: July 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-909058-1
Page Count: 565
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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