An ambitious, thoughtful debut that needs additional focus.
Cruz’s action/fantasy debut sees a young woman take on an entrenched, corrupt league of mixed martial arts fighters.
In 2032, Kirin Rise is a 19-year-old photographer living in Chicago. She’s also a student of the rogue martial art gung fu, which isn’t sanctioned by the United Federation of Mixed Fighting. With the country’s middle class nearly abolished, the federation’s brutal entertainment empire helps people vent their frustrations and win some quick cash. One Saturday night, the undersized Kirin decides to fight in a match open to so-called amateurs—and defeats her opponent with one punch! From then on, she’s a celebrity who must navigate the chaotic world of fans and media exposure. Her former teacher Sifu contacts her, wondering why she has upset her tranquil life. Kirin explains that she’s taking a stand against the complacency that poisons the nation. Everything changes, however, when the federation approaches her to officially join. Does she dare enter the system she loathes, even if it gets her access to its president, Jacob Thorne? She’d also have to survive the UFMF’s deadly endgame, full of the most savage fighters, known as the DOME. The novel’s tone seems to be against mixed fighting; as Kirin opines, “Americans lack the patience and attention span to develop true skill...what they’ve done is fast food the hell out of martial arts.” The best moments in the narrative focus on key elements that genuine martial artists can appreciate; they “stand and walk differently,” for example, because they work on their centers of gravity. But too many flashbacks and character-building vignettes distract as the tale progresses. The novel also casually broaches hot-button topics like gun ownership and reality television without fully exploring them. These elements become light décor on a future world that feels a lot like 2014 (aside from a few imaginative gadgets). Langtiw’s Japanese manga–inspired illustrations are well-done but few in number.
An ambitious, thoughtful debut that needs additional focus.Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1496929662
Page Count: 482
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Steinbeck's peculiarly intense simplicity of technique is admirably displayed in this vignette — a simple, tragic tale of Mexican little people, a story retold by the pearl divers of a fishing hamlet until it has the quality of folk legend. A young couple content with the humble living allowed them by the syndicate which controls the sale of the mediocre pearls ordinarily found, find their happiness shattered when their baby boy is stung by a scorpion. They dare brave the terrors of a foreign doctor, only to be turned away when all they can offer in payment is spurned. Then comes the miracle. Kino find a great pearl. The future looks bright again. The baby is responding to the treatment his mother had given. But with the pearl, evil enters the hearts of men:- ambition beyond his station emboldens Kino to turn down the price offered by the dealers- he determines to go to the capital for a better market; the doctor, hearing of the pearl, plants the seed of doubt and superstition, endangering the child's life, so that he may get his rake-off; the neighbors and the strangers turn against Kino, burn his hut, ransack his premises, attack him in the dark — and when he kills, in defense, trail him to the mountain hiding place- and kill the child. Then- and then only- does he concede defeat. In sorrow and humility, he returns with his Juana to the ways of his people; the pearl is thrown into the sea.... A parable, this, with no attempt to add to its simple pattern.
Pub Date: Nov. 24, 1947
ISBN: 0140187383
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1947
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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