A sinister but not-too-scary slice of Halloween horror fiction featuring a hearty bunch of heroes.
A small town with a gothic history falls prey to evil forces in former TV cooking-show host and restaurateur Ruggerio’s (Ruggerio’s Italian Kitchen, 2000, etc.) debut novel.
Children have been disappearing in the tiny, rustic hamlet of Brunswick, New York, for centuries. As Halloween draws near, young, stuttering, motherless William Willowsby witnesses frightening apparitions while playing with his friend Lilly Mueller in the reportedly haunted Forest Park cemetery. Even though he’s fascinated by the idea of monsters, he encounters creeping fog and the sound of a guttural moan that forces William to flee. But he soon becomes obsessed with investigating the mysteries surrounding the graveyard. Meanwhile, brothers Joey and Bobby Martorano visit Brunswick to debunk supernatural rumors. But horrific events befall the siblings as they explore the deep corners of a morgue, just as local longtime bookshop owner Jessup Homel feared would happen. Soon, local law enforcement becomes inspired to reopen a cold case and solves a mystery in the process. Throughout the novel, the author builds out Brunswick’s origins and legacy with ominous historical anecdotes. Ancient lore meets contemporary horror as monsters materialize in the present day, and William, Tom, and Bobby, cry werewolf—to the townspeople’s collective dismay. Bloodshed ensues before the serpentine nightmare comes to a close, leaving room for a potential sequel. In a succession of crisp, clipped chapters, Ruggerio moves his story along using classic horror and suspense tropes, blended with a unique descriptive flair, particularly when setting scenes or detailing the grim particulars of a monster. The author also conjures a fantastically eerie sense of place, showing Brunswick to be a close-knit, Halloween-loving, evil-fearing township, complete with a haunted mansion and schoolhouse, and a creepy mortuary with a grim past. The author brings in numerous characters along the way, although some wander in and out a bit too hastily. Overall, though, the story is alluring and devilishly entertaining, with a tone and subject matter reminiscent of spooky (but PG-rated) horror movies.
A sinister but not-too-scary slice of Halloween horror fiction featuring a hearty bunch of heroes.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-944715-51-9
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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