A bevy of sublime characters elevates this smashing paranormal tale.
In this second installment of a new-adult supernatural series, a college student capable of seeing ghosts finds herself linked to a deadly arsonist.
It’s been months since the death of 19-year-old Callie McCayter’s best friend, Izzy Miller. Determined to stay at Astoria College in Oregon, where Izzy died, Callie is ready for the spring semester. But she’s isolating herself from many people, such as Izzy’s parents, who took Callie away from her abusive, alcoholic father and loved her as their own daughter. Callie has been able to see and occasionally communicate with Izzy’s ghost. Lately, however, she’s observing other spirits and having trouble distinguishing them from the living. Callie’s afraid of what her loved ones will think if they catch her interacting with someone only she can see. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing before the semester starts, as Callie’s relationship with her boyfriend, Jay Houghten, isn’t as precisely defined as he would like. Callie, who fears losing someone she loves, as she did her mother to cancer years ago, has been pushing Jay away. Suddenly, transfer student Reid Halsey arrives at Astoria. Sure, he’s arrogant, but Callie can’t deny the inexplicable power between them when the two make physical contact. Meanwhile, Callie is dreaming of “the burning man,” who is leaving fiery destruction in his wake. She soon realizes a string of local cases of arson—with fatalities—has been unfolding in real life. Callie’s abilities put her in a unique position to stop the arsonist, an endeavor that will undoubtedly put her and possibly her friends in danger. As in her earlier novel, Rosengard (Spooked, 2018) concentrates more on Callie’s real-world drama than paranormal elements. Though ghostly sightings and burning man dreams create an eerie ambiance, they often take a back seat to Callie’s romantic turbulence. Nevertheless, characters are endlessly enthralling. Jay, for example, is transparently envious of Reid and gets maybe too close to one of Astoria’s professors, but his concern for Callie’s well-being is genuine. Additional standout characters are Callie’s pals Noemí Orozco, Bethany Humphries, and especially resident adviser Jenna, who has an uncanny knack for reading people. The dynamic protagonist continues to grow in this installment. She learns that she has other abilities and encounters people who also sense ghosts. And even without supernatural powers, she’s formidable. Though readers witness little of her “self-defense prowess,” her instincts are superb (for example, she figures out that keys are handy as makeshift brass knuckles). Much of this story’s mystery stems from Callie’s messages from Izzy. She rarely hears her ghost friend, who communicates by moving books or tarot cards. But Izzy manages to deliver an ambiguous warning via a dream: “He’s coming.” Surprisingly, identifying the burning man is more or less resolved well before the ending. But this precedes an intense and revealing final act, which includes a plot turn or two that shakes Callie’s world and leaves prime material for another volume to pick up. To offset the generally somber tone, there are dashes of humor: Callie Googles a potential word for her ability, “touched,” and gets websites she isn’t exactly looking for.
A bevy of sublime characters elevates this smashing paranormal tale.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73291-522-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 30, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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