An edgy, swiftly paced thriller with laudable female characters.
A metal band guitarist realizes he’s an essential part of a satanic cult’s dark prophecy in this supernatural novel.
Alec Lowell takes a gunshot to the heart during a performance with his Los Angeles band, the Great. Though the unidentified shooter gets away, Alec miraculously survives. His near-death prompts a reunion with Belinda Allen, the girlfriend he left years ago. When he learns the two have a son, Jake, Alec returns to Wisconsin with Belinda. While Alec is constantly paranoid that someone is watching him, Belinda suggests he make amends with his estranged family: his father, Brent, and younger sister, Ilene. But Brent, a devout Roman Catholic, had been abusive, which led to the Great’s ostensibly satanic stage performances—though they’re only for notoriety. Alec is later startled by the news that his dad had actually belonged to a satanic cult. Keeping an eye on Alec in Wisconsin is a reputed Great fan, Lucas, who readers know is a cult member. It seems the “secret Satan society” believes Alec is a prophet, who may play a role in the Dark Lord’s ultimate rise to power. But gathering intelligence on the cult is dangerous, as members target Belinda, Jake, and even Alec, when he proves to be an uncooperative prophet. Johnson’s (The Schoharie, 2017) thriller thrives on suspense, because many characters surrounding Alec may belong to the mysterious cult. Supernatural elements slowly creep in but don’t overwhelm the plot; Alec, for one, has an apparent healing capability. While the author truly excels at character development, including Lucas’ unsettling backstory, the men are generally dense and make questionable decisions. But the women are exceptional, from Belinda to the Great’s lead singer, Claire “Cleo” LeCroix, who calls everyone “hon,” a term either affectionate or condescending, depending on whom she’s speaking to. Despite the book’s heavy religious overtones, the story stays fairly middle-of-the-road, attributing good or evil to individuals rather than their beliefs. The final act piles on twists, and though one is predictable, the others are genuinely shocking.
An edgy, swiftly paced thriller with laudable female characters.Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5439-3948-4
Page Count: 376
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: April 1, 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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