A fast-paced, light read likely to appeal to fans of the walking dead and post-apocalyptic action thrillers.
Gleason (Ravagers, 2016, etc.) splices together adventure, horror, and a threat to the survival of humanity in this novel.
Jonah is a former soldier and somewhat recovered drug addict. He convinces a group of cohorts, including his best friend, Eric, and ex-wife, Sharon, to accompany him on a vacation to his old Army stomping grounds in Germany. All told, there are six of them. That doesn’t last long, because while they may have come in search of fun, something horrific finds them instead. They’re called molters, and they infect and use human hosts to reproduce. Jonah’s Army training is the best chance the band has at surviving (“Jonah could feel his friends crumbling. He knew to expect childlike behavior from them....People were unpredictable in a time of crisis. Jonah knew he had to stay strong for everyone, no matter what”). But the molters have already decimated an entire military base, the same one Jonah had been stationed at years before and the place the group decides to seek shelter in, hoping it is safe. The problem is, as far as anyone knows, the molters could be everywhere, and safety might be a distant dream for all of humanity. Indeed, the new reality might just be a nightmare. The horror elements of the narrative are decidedly prominent, incorporating moments of terror, suspense, and the unknown. But the action-thriller aspects are stronger. The molters are scary, but they can be fought and, sometimes, gruesomely killed. Overall, the story proceeds in a highly cinematic manner, with short scenes within larger chapters. And as with a horror movie, it doesn’t pay to get too attached to any of the characters, since they’re all targets. Perhaps because of this, none of the players (with the possible exception of Jonah) come across as terribly well-developed. The sketchy plot, too, often seems to take a back seat to action sequences. These sequences, however, do exactly what they need to. They’re well-written, engrossing, and pack plenty of verisimilitude. For some readers, that may be enough. The molters aren’t zombies, but they still should please aficionados.
A fast-paced, light read likely to appeal to fans of the walking dead and post-apocalyptic action thrillers.Pub Date: April 13, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5302-7125-2
Page Count: 188
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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