BROOD

Name: BROOD
Author: Chase Novak
ISBN: 978-0-316-22800-8

by Chase Novak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 7, 2014

Novak ably combines realism and the supernatural, even if the result is sometimes too preposterous even for suspenders of...

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Feral children, the result of fertility treatments gone horribly awry, roam the streets of Manhattan in Novak’s hit-or-miss follow-up to Breed (2012).

The pseudonymous Novak (who's really Scott Spencer; Endless Love, 1979, etc.) continues the tale of the Twisden twins, Adam and Alice, now 13 and orphaned following their parents’ grisly suicides (equally grisly is the elder Twisdens’ penchant for cannibalism, thanks to a Slovenian doctor’s fertility regimen). Stepping into the vacant parental shoes is the twins’ aunt Cynthia, who jumps at the opportunity to be a mother. But family life is far from perfect as the trio returns to the Upper East Side mansion where Alex and Leslie Twisden raised their children and slowly went mad. The twins soon disappear, running off to join one of the numerous bands of wild children who, like Adam and Alice, are genetically mutated to various degrees following their parents’ fertility treatments. One of the children, who partially glows in the dark, is the mayor's son. The leader of the twins’ pack is Rodolfo, who, like most of his followers, speaks in an initially jarring (and eventually simply irritating) dialect—“You’s not to do” translates to “Don’t do that,” for example. The wild children are under constant threat of scientific poaching at the hands of thugs from bioengineering company Borman&Davis, which uses human specimens for research in an attempt to harness the children’s power. At home in the seemingly empty mansion, Cynthia finds herself skewing more mad than sane.

Novak ably combines realism and the supernatural, even if the result is sometimes too preposterous even for suspenders of disbelief.

Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014

ISBN: 978-0-316-22800-8

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Mulholland Books/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Aug. 23, 2014

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.