An innovative take on the eternal battle between gods and mortals.
A scholar’s dream job turns sinister when she finds herself at the mercy of gods.
Aida Reale, a 34-year-old historian in Boston, is dealing with a series of career setbacks—since being laid off from her university teaching job, she also lost a book deal after her publisher folded—when she receives a mysterious job offer. Her friend Felix Goodman, a tour guide in Rome, has recommended her to his rich client, Lady Ozie. Ozie’s organization, MODA, is hiring a scholar to build a historical database of places, items, and events in Italy. Impressed by Aida’s academic research, they offer her the job, complete with a gorgeous apartment in Rome and a $400,000 salary. Though Aida is reluctant to leave her fiancé, Graham Pechman, the opportunity proves too good to pass up. When she arrives in Rome, she learns the odd nature of the work: From the Casa di Goethe to the Colosseum, Aida is tasked with cataloging happiness, observing how each place she studies brings joy to the world. At first, Aida is invigorated, but she soon chafes against MODA’s strict protocols, including phone tapping and constant location monitoring. When Aida is shocked to realize that every site she visits is soon shuttered or destroyed, she uncovers the dark truth—her employers are gods, and she has been an unwitting pawn in their mission to plunge the world into total despair. Author King has concocted a wholly unique premise, supported by her obvious delight in imparting the rich history of Rome’s many marvels and a deep knowledge of Greek and Roman mythology. But once MODA’s true machinations come to light, she struggles to build the propulsive pace the plot deserves. Aida's relationship with Graham also proves extraneous to the narrative, and space dedicated to it would have been better utilized by fleshing out other characters and Aida’s connections to them—particularly fellow MODA “Happiness Collector“ Luciano Leto.
An innovative take on the eternal battle between gods and mortals.Pub Date: Dec. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780778387275
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.
With only a month left until the world ends due to a swiftly approaching black hole, Don and Rodney, a retired gay couple, road-trip from Maine to Washington to spend their final days with their son.
After reports that a planet-swallowing black hole is making its way toward Earth, Rodney and Don—who have been together for 40 years and survived everything from homophobia to the HIV crisis—decide to pack their belongings into an RV, say goodbye to their neighbors, and travel from Camden, Maine, to Washington to uphold a promise to spend their final days with their son. They can’t wait any longer, since there’s already chaos around the country: “Military vehicles in the streets of most cities and towns. Looting, rioting, the burning of cars and buildings and people, all of it had already happened.” As they make their way west across the country, they encounter fellow travelers ranging from close-knit families to free-spirited hippies, some of whom have come to terms with the impending end of the world and others who haven’t. While the story seems to be asking readers what they would do if they had 30 days left to live, and reflects on what different kinds of acceptance might look like in the face of unavoidable tragedy, it loses some of its poignancy in a series of thinly padded monologues about the meaning of life. Clearly intended to pack an emotional punch, it’s failed by an abrupt ending, and the way the journey’s mystery—which will be obvious to many readers—is revealed by an info dump in the last chapter.
An existential crisis that steps on its own final moments.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9781250881236
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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