A whimsical adventure that promotes individuality and self-acceptance.
In this fantasy sequel, a mysterious stone leads a young girl from her quiet life in suburban Hartsdale, New York, to the Icelandic home of an ancient mythical being.
Elika is embarrassed by her Icelandic name, her yellow-green eyes, and, above all, her eccentric Aunt Caroline. In Spudich’s (The Amber Giant, 2017, etc.) first novel in the series, Caroline befriended a yetilike creature in the Himalayas when she was a young girl; she’s now a geology professor who still frequently visits her hairy friend. Just after Elika’s 13th birthday, the girl begins hearing a high voice calling out in her dreams. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she notices that the Fire and Ice quartz that her mother brought her from Iceland is glowing. She consults with Caroline, who thinks that the crystal may have a connection to another mythical creature. With her family’s support, she and her aunt travel to Iceland to find it. Elika locates the Ice Giant, who immediately takes a liking to her, insisting that she stay in her frozen cave. The girl must figure out a way to return to her family without making her newfound friend feel abandoned. Although this story is closely connected to The Amber Giant, it can easily be read as a stand-alone. Spudich uses straightforward language that’s well suited to young audiences. Her descriptions of Icelandic landscapes are filled with ethereal beauty, as when Elika marvels at how “Sunlight shone through the ice, filling it with turquoise light.” Later, she writes: “They stopped by a flow of ice that looked like a river frozen in time.” Spudich’s interpretation of the mythological Ice Giant will certainly pique readers’ interest. However, the story is rather brief, and readers may wish that there were more material to explore. Still, considering the brevity of the book, Elika’s character development is considerable; the journey to Iceland helps her overcome her insecurities and deepens her relationship with her aunt. Through conversation with the centuries-old Giant, she realizes the importance of her cultural heritage and hopes to learn more about her family’s history.
A whimsical adventure that promotes individuality and self-acceptance.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-947854-47-5
Page Count: 156
Publisher: Handersen Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
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. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
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