by Colin Robertson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 2015
Readers will likely be sorry to see this book (and the world) come to a conclusion.
It’s the end of the world as we know it in this fine Dr. Strangelove–ian satire about the mad search for a doomsday device.
Robertson’s (The Siege of Walter Parks, 2012) self-billed “feel good story about the end of the world” may not be completely unique, but it is exceedingly clever and entertaining and, at times, spot-on loony. Thirteen-year-old Alex Graham and his friend Gerald find a thermos-shaped canister labeled “Top Secret” and “Property of the United States Government.” No sooner does Alex put it up for bid on eBay than he finds himself hunted by mercenaries and the CIA. The elusive canister turns out to be a long-lost weapon of ultimate destruction created by a Dr. MacGuffin (likely a sly reference to Alfred Hitchcock’s signature plot device of a desired object that drives a story). The United States, led by an ineffectual president who fancies himself a poet, wants it back, but others, including a stereotypically drawn Islamic terrorist and a German arms dealer, have their own designs on the elusive weapon. CIA agent Charlie Draper, whose own world ended with the deaths of his wife and daughter, takes Alex under his wing as the search becomes more frantic and the body count escalates. Robertson is adept at balancing the story’s farcical and gritty elements. The book’s violence is sudden and punishing, which underscores the high stakes and invests the story with a gravitas that makes its absurdist passages even funnier. That said, the humor is hit-or-miss; all the jokes can’t be good, as Groucho Marx once said, but readers, after wading through an opening disclaimer, a preface, a few words about the book’s science (“There isn’t any”), and a faux introduction that extols the book’s silliness, might be tempted to ask the author to get on with it. The invented quotes (“‘Do I really sound like that?’—R.M. Nixon”) that head most chapters also become increasingly tiresome. That said, there are also some sublimely silly passages whose deadpan musings recall the late Douglas Adams.
Readers will likely be sorry to see this book (and the world) come to a conclusion.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Gin & Tonic Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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IndieBound Bestseller
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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