An imaginative work that effectively blends fantasy and social commentary.
A real-life version of the folk hero John Henry emerges in the Jim Crow South in von Hoffman’s speculative debut novel.
Fifteen-year-old Moses Crawford has some unusual characteristics: He’s taller than most grown men, incredibly strong, and impervious to bullets and billy clubs. These all come in handy for a Black kid growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1935. They allow him to do things like save his uncle from a murderous group of men in Georgia without getting a scratch on him; he does this while wearing “a work shirt, jeans, a pair of boots,” he notes. “Afterward stories where I wore a costume and a mask. Never happened. Not then or ever. Kluxers wear masks.” Unfortunately, his father is not bulletproof like him, and he dies in an ensuing shootout. Then racists in the Georgia town take out their anger on their Black neighbors as soon as Mo and his uncle leave. There’s nothing scarier to these bigots than a Black man who can’t be brought down, and, to them, Mo’s very presence is tantamount to a declaration of war. Will he be able to use his unique abilities to prevent further violence, or will he cut his own path of destruction across the South? Poet, nonfiction writer, and former journalist von Hoffman writes in a clipped, muscular prose style over the course of this novel that suits his sensitive, often ambivalent protagonist. Here, for instance, Mo awakens to a couple’s rural poverty: “Everything they had in the world would add up to little more than nothing….Other than Uncle Stan, my father’s brother, I didn’t really know anyone who was poor, not like this.” The characters, particularly Moses, are well drawn, and aspects of Moses’ journey, such as the way it’s covered in the media and his efforts to translate his grassroots movement into a political one with the John Henry Party, may remind readers of events in our own time. Overall, it’s a complex work that engages with an era that feels simultaneously remote and frightfully contemporary.
An imaginative work that effectively blends fantasy and social commentary.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73633-170-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: 4 Dogs Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia.
A teenage witch goes up against the evil king of the mountain to save a cursed village.
Witch-in-training Verity Vox has spent a year apiece in different villages, helping in any way she can as she learns her art. When it’s time to move on, she receives a sign that shows her where to go next. When the latest sign appears in the form of a note begging for help that floats down on a leaf, she’s eager for the challenge. Verity winds up in Foxfire, a village in the Appalachian mountains that’s been magically cut off from the rest of the world for years, leaving its people close to starvation. The root of their suffering is a man they know as Earl, who lives in the hills and strikes deals with the townspeople that ultimately cause crops to wither, folks to disappear, and the only bridge out of the valley to crumble. Verity is determined to change the villagers’ fortunes, but to do so she’ll have to face off against not just Earl but the ancient power of the mountains itself. Loosely based on the Germanic Erlking legend and told in a voice reminiscent of folktales, the story features a queer romance and a cast that presents white. The convoluted magic system undercuts the strong themes of reciprocity, poverty, and privilege, but Appalachian readers will instantly recognize home.
A sweet if muddled tale of the magic of Appalachia. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2025
ISBN: 9798890032706
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
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