An original and comic take on alternative history SF.
An author travels to another dimension to solve a mystery that has plagued him all his life in this sequel.
Simon Royale, a bestselling writer of horror novels, lives in a copy of the world that only contains North America—or, North America as it was on Halloween 2014. His writing is fueled, in part, by the mysterious disappearance of his sister, Cynthia, when he was 7 years old. The guilt he feels over the event is so intense that he is willing to take advantage of the opportunity to investigate a different copy of North America: one made in 1953. The two worlds have continued to develop along different paths, and US-53 (as it’s called) has its own Simon Royale—though he’s a failed, unpublished writer instead of a successful one. What’s more, the sister of US-53 Simon never disappeared. The Simon from US-2014 is going to meet his counterpart from US-53 in neutral territory: a third realm called Mega-Madagascar, which is overrun by German neo-Nazis from an alternative 1939 Europe. Confused? So is Simon US-2014. But as he attempts to solve the mystery of his sister’s disappearance and prevent his doppelgänger from stealing his identity and book sales, Simon US-2014 quickly finds himself in over his head. The SF book is even more convoluted than it sounds, but Cozort (Snapshot: Book 1 of the Snapshot Universe, 2014, etc.) unspools his Möbius strip of a plot with skillful ease. He has a lot of fun with its metafictional premise: Businesswoman Ella Smoot “still thought it was a great idea: Organize self-published writers from US-2014 for a book tour to the relatively untapped US-53 book market. No e-books there. No personal computers to speed up novel writing and create a gigantic, ever-growing glut of aspiring authors.” While not as straightforward as many popular alternative history novels, Cozort’s story explores the idea more fully and imaginatively than most. What’s more, he hinges his narrative on the small, personal problems of individuals rather than world historical events. The sequel is accessible to those who have no previous experience with the author’s Snapshot universe, and it will likely convince them to come back for more.
An original and comic take on alternative history SF.Pub Date: July 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-07-434380-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
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
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