Little is recycled in this fresh, action-oriented installment of the Garbageman series.
This third volume of a supernatural series pits the saga’s heroes against an old enemy with new powers.
It’s been 14 years since David Turley, whose telekinesis can create the monstrous Garbageman, defeated the evil Hellann. Now, David and his wife, Julie, have settled into married life in Phoenix, Arizona, with their teenage son, Michael. Thanks to the chemical Neurogen that gave David and Julie special powers and immortality, Michael likewise possesses telekinesis—and the ability to see the dead. The boy’s best friend is a spirit named Francine, an African American teen who drowned. The Turleys’ idyllic life soon comes under fire when one of Hellann’s leftover minions starts possessing people and causing murderous havoc. David’s friend Joseph “Sarge” Finney loses his soul while battling this wraith. Bradley, a Hopi kachina (or spirit) who helped fight Hellann years ago, contacts Dr. Benjamin Donovan in nearby Carefree, Arizona. Donovan employs his Chronos device to remove “Lifetime” from terminally ill people who want to die. By using the Lifetime himself, Donovan has stopped aging and is 175 years old. After Bradley hides Sarge’s soul from the wraith in Flagstone, “the town of decay,” he asks Donovan to intervene. Alongside David’s powerful family, the doctor must save Sarge and protect him from Flagstone’s dangerous citizens. But with Dean at the helm, the rescue will prove a bumpy ride. As the wraith, normally a “bearded man with a smoky red-and-black form,” jumps from body to body, chaos ensues. This includes a knife-wielding shopper showing up at a mall and a dump truck driving against traffic on a highway. The author’s humanoid Tormentors boost the horror, with limbs “like spider legs except for the fingers and toes, which had claws.” Donovan’s presence adds fun, Ghostbusters-style technology to the mix, like his “Ocular Soul-Sensing Device.” In Flagstone, hellish surrealism appears in a forest filled with octopuses. Hellann’s much-threatened return draws Francine into a final battle, giving the ghost an important role. Despite the trilogy’s compact finale, Dean’s penchant for thematic expansion may lead to more “trashing time” ahead.
Little is recycled in this fresh, action-oriented installment of the Garbageman series.Pub Date: July 13, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-66-600052-6
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Well-drawn characters introduce the criminal underworld to the occult kind in a breathless and compelling plot.
A Yale sophomore fights for her life as she balances academics with supernatural extracurriculars in this smart fantasy thriller, the second in a series.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is a member of Lethe House, the ninth of Yale’s secret societies. And not just any member—she’s Virgil, the officer who conducts the society's rituals. In the world of Bardugo’s Alex Stern series, Yale’s secret societies command not just powerful social networks, but actual magic; it’s Lethe’s job to keep that magic in control. Alex is new to the role. She had to take over in a hurry after the previous Virgil, Darlington, her mentor and love interest, disappeared in a cliffhanger at the end of the first book. He appears to be in hell, but is he stuck there for good? Alex and Pamela Dawes—Lethe’s Oculus, or archivist/administrator—have found a reference to a pathway called a Gauntlet that can open a portal to hell, but can they find the Gauntlet itself? And what about the four murderers the Gauntlet ritual requires? Meanwhile, Alex’s past as a small-time drug dealer is catching up with her, adding gritty street crime to the demonic white-collar evil the Yale crowd tends to prefer. The plot is relentless and clever, and the writing is vivid, intelligent, and funny at just the right moments, but best of all are the complex characters, such as the four murderers, each with a backstory that makes it possible for the reader to trust them to enter hell and have the strength to leave again. Like the first book, this one ends with a cliffhanger.
Well-drawn characters introduce the criminal underworld to the occult kind in a breathless and compelling plot.Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-31310-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally...
Yale’s secret societies hide a supernatural secret in this fantasy/murder mystery/school story.
Most Yale students get admitted through some combination of impressive academics, athletics, extracurriculars, family connections, and donations, or perhaps bribing the right coach. Not Galaxy “Alex” Stern. The protagonist of Bardugo’s (King of Scars, 2019, etc.) first novel for adults, a high school dropout and low-level drug dealer, Alex got in because she can see dead people. A Yale dean who's a member of Lethe, one of the college’s famously mysterious secret societies, offers Alex a free ride if she will use her spook-spotting abilities to help Lethe with its mission: overseeing the other secret societies’ occult rituals. In Bardugo’s universe, the “Ancient Eight” secret societies (Lethe is the eponymous Ninth House) are not just old boys’ breeding grounds for the CIA, CEOs, Supreme Court justices, and so on, as they are in ours; they’re wielders of actual magic. Skull and Bones performs prognostications by borrowing patients from the local hospital, cutting them open, and examining their entrails. St. Elmo’s specializes in weather magic, useful for commodities traders; Aurelian, in unbreakable contracts; Manuscript goes in for glamours, or “illusions and lies,” helpful to politicians and movie stars alike. And all these rituals attract ghosts. It’s Alex’s job to keep the supernatural forces from embarrassing the magical elite by releasing chaos into the community (all while trying desperately to keep her grades up). “Dealing with ghosts was like riding the subway: Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. Do not engage. Otherwise, you never know what might follow you home.” A townie’s murder sets in motion a taut plot full of drug deals, drunken assaults, corruption, and cover-ups. Loyalties stretch and snap. Under it all runs the deep, dark river of ambition and anxiety that at once powers and undermines the Yale experience. Alex may have more reason than most to feel like an imposter, but anyone who’s spent time around the golden children of the Ivy League will likely recognize her self-doubt.
With an aura of both enchantment and authenticity, Bardugo’s compulsively readable novel leaves a portal ajar for equally dazzling sequels.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-31307-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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