Rich characterizations and a compelling message distinguish this speculative story.
An outsider’s perspective sends a civilization in a new direction in Okell’s SF novel.
Teenager Kimi leaves his underground land of darkness to explore the hint of light that keeps creeping through from outside. Dazzled in the land of the Light, he gets captured and put into a retraining program for misbehaving youths. Kimi gets picked on by the others there with the exception of Marvus, his eventual bunkmate. Burgiss, a teacher in the program, takes pity on Kimi and offers to become his mentor. Burgiss learns how Kimi functions back home and teaches him how to survive in this new place. Noting Kimi’s aptitude for math and science, Burgiss introduces him to Halmo, a friend who’s a mechanic for the Light, a living light source that functions as an object of religious devotion. Halmo lets Kimi in on the Light’s dark secret, which Burgiss couldn’t bring himself to tell him: The Light is powered by humans. Each year, the trainee who fares worst is fed to the Light, and Kimi is expected to be that year’s sacrifice (“They are all expecting that you will fail”). After indulging a funk about his likely fate, Kimi begins scheming ways to power the Light using natural resources from his land. Okell’s thought-provoking story suggests how science can overcome the failings of religion—rather than depending on the sacrifice of a person whom proper society deems unworthy, Kimi uses reason to find a long-lasting, more humane solution. The author has created a well-rounded cast of supporting characters to populate what is essentially a juvenile prison. Her best character is Kimi, who proves remarkably adaptable in a world radically different from his own. Okell’s narrative hinges on this bighearted, intelligent boy who comes up with solutions not just to his daily problems, but also to his new home’s long-term concerns. A handful of late twists bring the tale to a satisfying conclusion, offering hope for the future.
Rich characterizations and a compelling message distinguish this speculative story.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 155
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A somewhat fragmentary nocturnal shadows Jim Nightshade and his friend Will Halloway, born just before and just after midnight on the 31st of October, as they walk the thin line between real and imaginary worlds. A carnival (evil) comes to town with its calliope, merry-go-round and mirror maze, and in its distortion, the funeral march is played backwards, their teacher's nephew seems to assume the identity of the carnival's Mr. Cooger. The Illustrated Man (an earlier Bradbury title) doubles as Mr. Dark. comes for the boys and Jim almost does; and there are other spectres in this freakshow of the mind, The Witch, The Dwarf, etc., before faith casts out all these fears which the carnival has exploited... The allusions (the October country, the autumn people, etc.) as well as the concerns of previous books will be familiar to Bradbury's readers as once again this conjurer limns a haunted landscape in an allegory of good and evil. Definitely for all admirers.
Pub Date: June 15, 1962
ISBN: 0380977273
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1962
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