In this debut graphic novel, four siblings discover a passage to a number of worlds, precipitating grand escapades and a great deal of peril.
Neil and Kristen Cooper are relocating their family to a new home, a fixer-upper in a seemingly vacant neighborhood. On moving day, young Rob finds a sizable hole in the backyard, which leads to a tunnel that he; his sisters, Lauren, Claire, and Elyse; and the family dog, Cash, enter. Underground, where surprisingly Cash can talk, are doors leading to various worlds. Over the next few days, the siblings explore a desert, a forest, and many other places and even take some items for Neil’s birthday. Unfortunately, pirates who had already claimed the pieces crawl up the backyard hole and kidnap the entire family. Though the Coopers eventually manage to escape, they are almost entirely separated. Kristen sprints through the tunnel with little Elyse in tow; ever loyal Cash helps Rob evade pirates and track down Neil; and Lauren, hiding in a forested world, stumbles on another danger. But Claire winds up in a giant library, where she encounters strange individuals with a unique ability to help her and her family—or severely compound their predicaments. Heetebrij’s diverting tale, most assuredly a series launch, boasts characters with distinctive personalities. Neil, for example, tries to convince himself he’s dreaming during the initial pirate abduction while Elyse, when scared, clings to the closest family member. And Cash turns out to be a scene-stealer; in an argument with Neil, the canine, who occasionally wears a spray collar, suggests: “How about a collar to shut you up?” Though the pirates supply much of the villainy, there are vivid characters throughout, from fairy trolls to a band of knights. Complementing the writing are the striking and animated images by debut illustrator Lareva. But the artwork’s most discernible quality is the color-defined worlds; the blue-gray library, the dark green forest, and the black tunnel with minimal light provide readers with effortless scene transitions as well as visual treats.
A vibrant, entertaining, and memorable adventure with strong characters.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9903874-0-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
Did you like this book?
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
GET IT
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
While a few weeks ago it seemed as if Praeger would have a two month lead over Dutton in their presentation of this Soviet best seller, both the "authorized" edition (Dutton's) and the "unauthorized" (Praeger's) will appear almost simultaneously. There has been considerable advance attention on what appears to be as much of a publishing cause celebre here as the original appearance of the book in Russia. Without entering into the scrimmage, or dismissing it as a plague on both your houses, we will limit ourselves to a few facts. Royalties from the "unauthorized" edition will go to the International Rescue Committee; Dutton with their contracted edition is adhering to copyright conventions. The Praeger edition has two translators and one of them is the translator of Doctor Zhivago Dutton's translator, Ralph Parker, has been stigmatized by Praeger as "an apologist for the Soviet regime". To the untutored eye, the Dutton translation seems a little more literary, the Praeger perhaps closer to the rather primitive style of the original. The book itself is an account of one day in the three thousand six hundred and fifty three days of the sentence to be served by a carpenter, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. (Solzhenitsyn was a political prisoner.) From the unrelenting cold without, to the conditions within, from the bathhouse to the latrine to the cells where survival for more than two weeks is impossible, this records the hopeless facts of existence as faced by thousands who went on "living like this, with your eyes on the ground". The Dutton edition has an excellent introduction providing an orientation on the political background to its appearance in Russia by Marvin Kalb. All involved in its publication (translators, introducers, etc.) claim for it great "artistic" values which we cannot share, although there is no question of its importance as a political and human document and as significant and tangible evidence of the de-Stalinization program.
Pub Date: June 15, 1963
ISBN: 0451228146
Page Count: 181
Publisher: Praeger
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1963
Categories: GENERAL FICTION
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2022 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
