by Charles Davis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2008
While the novel is supposed to make us reflect on our own money-driven and serious-minded world (in contrast to that of the...
A novel about, among other things, the therapeutic pleasures of walking the dog, but there’s also much here to drive a reader to weariness.
Davis (Walk On, Bright Boy, 2007) uses boatloads of whimsy, but it all seems rather canned, and as is usually the case with whimsical narratives, there’s not much at stake. The action—what little there is—takes place on Santa Margarita y Los Monjes, an obscure tropical island “where time is so abundant most people spend their days lounging about in hammocks, contemplating the arc of the sun, and laying bets on which fly the gecko gets next.” Given such a languid atmosphere, one would expect little to happen—and one would not be disappointed. The loosely structured chapters focus on a good-natured embalmer; a witch doctor who’s not subject to the laws of gravity; a dictator who’s picked on; big-breasted women, and so on. This is obviously an eclectic mix of characters, but they really don’t have much meaningful interaction. Davis remains content to milk the scenes for more humor than they’re worth. The President-for-Life, for example, is usually abbreviated with the acronym PIFL, and while this is (perhaps) mildly amusing the first time, it gets decidedly well-worn by the end of the novel. The narrator’s Aunt Dolores (Dolor—get it?) lugubriously indulges in an endless litany of “Woes” (always capitalized) and “honor[s] those who embody the truth that death is the only reality after Woe…” She expresses antipathy to any expression of optimism. Likewise, the narrator ends every chapter except the last with a variation of “it’s time to walk the dog.” This constant elbowing to constantly remind the reader how clever the narrator is quickly becomes tedious and heavy-handed rather than lightly and comically ironic.
While the novel is supposed to make us reflect on our own money-driven and serious-minded world (in contrast to that of the “Margamonjans”), it’s rather more playful than a body can stand.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-57962-167-4
Page Count: 164
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2008
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by TJ Klune ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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PERSPECTIVES
by Leigh Bardugo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
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New York Times Bestseller
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
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