Though plagued by gaps in internal logic, the novel is at least partially redeemed by engaging characters and sheer force of...
A rich fantasy world in the tradition of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland.
The journey to Blunderland—an alternate world where black goo can render solid surfaces penetrable, and people read and write via handmade crafts (a cheap woven rug being analogous to a paperback book)—begins in an ordinary, unnamed American town. Finley Barrett has just moved in and is eager to build a life for herself after surviving both an incident of domestic violence and the death of her beloved mother. Exploring with her puppy Zipper (whose antics fill a perhaps unduly large portion of the book), Fin is drawn to a sculpture garden in a nearby park, particularly its giant mosaic arch that turns out to be a portal to Blunderland, a place that seems entirely alien until its residents help Fin remember that she has been there before. Blunderland is being terrorized by a brutal race nicknamed Creeps and some of the populace hope Fin is the answer to their troubles while others blame her for not helping before. Fin eventually discovers that she is the only one who can keep the Creeps where they belong, and so she sets off to find a magical throne that will help her fulfill her destiny. While Fin’s developing role as reluctant savior is compelling, the exact details surrounding her previous trip to Blunderland, and the fact that she gained entry to it from the exact same town she has just moved to yet doesn’t remember at all, strain believability. Many fantastic elements of the story are captivating and well imagined, such as the town of Soluna where the residents are bitterly divided by their allegiance to night or day. But the novel would be better served by developing concrete plot details rather than dwelling on Zipper’s favorite chew toy or how often he is fed. Blunderland is also overpopulated, causing characters to be introduced and then quickly left behind. But those that O’Kane does stick with are interesting and charming—particularly Ryan, the Native American (but is Blunderland in America?) who is both wise and wise-cracking.
Though plagued by gaps in internal logic, the novel is at least partially redeemed by engaging characters and sheer force of imagination.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-1450242196
Page Count: 259
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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