An often engaging thriller that transcends its standard post-apocalyptic setup.
In this debut sci-fi thriller, two English brothers encounter a desolate New York City littered with corpses and teeming with crazed killers.
Manchester, England, natives Harry and Jack cut their New York sightseeing plans short when their plane lands in the apparently abandoned John F. Kennedy International Airport. The brothers, along with fellow passenger Bernie and his wife, Linda, volunteer to check the terminal, where they discover multiple corpses. Soon, a group of seemingly demented people tries to kill them. Several of the attackers—the brothers simply call them “killers”—appear to have turned against one another before the plane’s arrival. Soon the brothers and their allies are on the hunt for more survivors and for information about a possible global catastrophe. The Wearmouths’ vision of an apocalyptic New York is, at least initially, standard fare: large, deserted areas; piles of dead bodies; and main characters with no clue about what’s happening. However, the authors’ ingenuity soon separates their story from the rest of the pack, as it features enemies who aren’t as easy to spot as infected zombies—which makes it impossible for the heroes to trust even an elderly woman. The killers also have the intriguing ability to manipulate potential victims into traps. As the story progresses, the brothers meet other survivors, such as Lea—who, in a clever use of modern communication, initially communicates with Jack via Twitter—and they also lose some companions. The story eventually hits a relative standstill, however, once the group holes up in the city. Readers learn little about the characters or their situations; instead, the heroes simply fight more killers, until they finally opt for a more isolated shelter. The book’s final act delivers the goods, however, explaining the reasons for the killers’ bizarre behavior and why the airplane’s passengers and crew were unaffected. Harry and Jack’s nationality gives the book a distinctive British flair—they often call people “mates,” for example—but it sometimes bleeds too much into the rest of the narrative, as when American characters refer to a cell phone as a “mobile.” The coda provides a fitting denouement, and leaves the ending open to readers’ interpretations.
An often engaging thriller that transcends its standard post-apocalyptic setup.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1491296523
Page Count: 266
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
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.
