by Christopher Rowe ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2017
A clutch of complex, persuasive visions of an alternative South.
Kentucky gets dystopian—or just plain weird—in this debut collection of stories merging realism and science fiction.
The Border State, the novella anchoring Rowe’s debut, has an enduring theme: siblings searching for lost parents. But the Kentucky where the twin brother and sister are searching is less familiar, and less gentle, than the stereotypes of thoroughbreds and endless bluegrass. The state has been closed off from its neighbors after a conflagration with federal authorities, and telephones and rivers possess sentient and occasionally malicious powers. The twins’ search takes the form of a Tour de France–style bicycle race, which gives the story constant movement as well as some well-turned glimpses of the landscape. Many of the remaining stories share the Kentucky setting as well as details about its curious reshaping. “Nowhere Fast,” for instance, features the surprising arrival of a gas-burning car (“forbidden technology”), opening a discussion about society’s greed for rushing. (“It takes as long to get somewhere as it should take...expedience leads to war and flood.”) In “The Contrary Gardener,” the sharpest story in the collection, a young woman becomes alert to political revolution and the dangers of technology (as with the mechanized bus driver, which seems to have developed a conscience) amid the Kentucky Derby, one of the last bastions of the state’s old culture. And “The Unveiling” is a thoughtful allegory on the intersection of political resistance and what we literally put on a pedestal. Rowe’s stories are rooted in Kentucky, but he’s also often inventing a society out of whole cloth, and the short story form is sometimes an uncomfortable place for such aggressive worldbuilding; “The Voluntary State,” for instance, introduces so many new creatures and histories that it becomes clotted with explication instead of action. Mostly, though, Rowe's stories are effective and relaxed.
A clutch of complex, persuasive visions of an alternative South.Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-61873-132-6
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
Share your opinion of this book
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
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
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...
Awards & Accolades
Likes
24
Our Verdict
GET IT
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
Share your opinion of this book
More by Leigh Bardugo
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Leigh Bardugo ; illustrated by Dani Pendergast
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.