A jumble of contrived events and nonsensical details, this book is neither suspenseful enough to work as drama nor funny...
Two London teens train to escort souls into the afterlife in this thoroughly muddled fantasy.
They have been recruited by Mr. October, a master of disguise given to both cryptic hints and long-winded background explanations. Ben goes out each night either to an office to type the names of the dead onto file cards in the magically disguised “Ministry of Pandemonium” or into the streets with psychic classmate Becky to escort the city’s newly minted ghosts through a shining doorway. This latter task is complicated by the menacing Lords of Sundown—a diverse group of baddies with the vague agenda of bringing “disorder and chaos to the world.” They achieve this by both kidnapping confused spirits and sucking out the souls of the living like (as Mr. October puts it) “industrial-strength vacuum cleaners of doom.” When Ben pockets a card with his own mother’s name on it, Mr. October saves his job with a transparent switcheroo, but the lad’s failure to follow proper procedure somehow lets the Lords of Sundown into the Ministry for a climactic battle. Ben's filing expertise is key to overcoming them.
A jumble of contrived events and nonsensical details, this book is neither suspenseful enough to work as drama nor funny enough to be a sendup. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: July 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-39919-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
Just the ticket for fans of Unfortunate Events in dim corridors and murky subterranean chambers.
As sole remaining worker for the once-grand hotel he eventually stands to inherit, 12-year-old orphan Warren toils to keep up with the destruction his (supposed) aunt Annaconda is wreaking in her search for a legendary All-Seeing Eye that might restore her waning witchly powers.
The fortuitous appearance of a trail of cryptic clues, along with a stranger shrouded in bandages and Annaconda’s equally malign sisters Scalene and Isosceles, escalate the hunt to a mad scramble. With help from a tentacled but friendly monster lurking in the boiler room and Petula, a beautifully tattooed witch hunter, Warren ultimately discovers that the real prize is the hotel itself, which turns out to have several unusual capabilities. Page design plays a large role in setting the tone. Initial letters and loud exclamations are printed in red and, often, a variety of antique display types; the double columns of narrative switch to white on black for Annaconda’s scenes; calligraphic patterns or esoteric geometric figures appear in many of the dark, wood-engraving–style illustrations. Codes, visual puzzles, and mirror writing also figure prominently. As heroic of heart as he is grotesque of features ("toadlike face, gray skin, crooked teeth”), Warren leads the way to a triumphant resolution that presages further adventures.
Just the ticket for fans of Unfortunate Events in dim corridors and murky subterranean chambers. (Light horror. 11-13)Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59474-803-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Dim and dismal.
Cut-paper silhouettes illustrate this large-format tale of a young prince’s efforts to break the chains of loneliness and isolation imposed on him by his high station.
Rendered unappealing by an interminable and pedestrian text, illegible by virtue of many pages of gray type on black or dark blue backgrounds, and leaden of spirit thanks to the dingy palette, this overblown effort starts sinking as soon as it leaves the dock. Surrounded by adults and always knowing that “his destiny was to reign,” a prince finds solace in drawing an imaginary village with ultraviolet ink on his bed curtains, rambling about an abandoned attic, and sneaking off into town at night to wander about and, er, sing: “Like a fox, I am always looking / But I don’t know quite what for. / The people nobody thinks about, that’s whose side I’m on.” Finally a jejune promise left by his father (whom he’d hardly ever seen) that he need never feel lonely because “I will always be here. / Deep in your heart…” leaves him wanting “to tear off all his clothes and dive head first into this swirling sea of life.” How he gets on, naked or otherwise, will be covered in a pair of planned sequels. The jacket unfolds into a large poster containing a different but similarly incoherent manifesto in cut-out letters.
Dim and dismal. (Illustrated fiction. 11-13, adult)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56656-077-1
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Crocodile/Interlink
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
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