A satisfying conclusion to a flawed but often fantastically entertaining trilogy.
In Kane’s (Prophecy, 2015, etc.) final installment of the Legacy trilogy, a teenage girl puts her life on the line to try to destroy a sinister company that produces powerful, mood-altering drugs.
It’s been 75 days since a secretive man named Quin McAllister left the San Francisco Bay Area and Lex Knightley’s life. Government authorities have instituted curfews and set up checkpoints to crack down on the consumption of “emotion-altering medications,” or EAMs. The newest, most dangerous EAM is Onyx, which causes aggressive behavior and has led to an explosion of gang violence on San Francisco’s foggy streets. Meanwhile, Lex has been hiding a fugitive Resistance leader-turned-drug czar named Augustus Porter, despite her hatred of him, as she hopes to obtain insider information that will help bring down EAM manufacturer Zenigenic and its ruthless, power-hungry CEO, Xander Steele. When Quin abruptly returns and teams up with Zenigenic as a spokesman for a new medication designed to make the world kinder, Lex knows there must be more to this strange alliance than meets the eye. Lex, with the help of some friends—including her intrepid reporter father and the somewhat untrustworthy Augustus—hopes to fulfill the wishes of her deceased mother, a Zenigenic psychiatrist who regretted her prominent role in the creation of EAMs. She plans to do so by solving the mystery and exposing the corporation’s dirty deeds once and for all. Kane throws readers right into the deep end without wasting any time recapping previous novels in the series. Fortunately, readers will likely find that her vividly detailed world and complex characters have lingered with them since Prophecy (2015). Lex has developed and matured a great deal since readers met her in Legacy (2014), though she still occasionally feels like a Mary Sue—a little too perfect to be real. The book is at its best when it focuses on the tragic psychological fallout from EAM usage, and at its worst when it focuses on Lex and Quin’s dull romance; they lack the spark to stand out from every other star-crossed dystopian duo. The book’s frenetic climax, set at the iconic Bay Bridge, will leave readers breathless and wanting more from Kane and her fictional world.
A satisfying conclusion to a flawed but often fantastically entertaining trilogy.Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4575-4402-6
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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