A fun, fast-paced, and spooky read that may get young readers talking.
Witches, vampires, and vampire hunters tangle in this middle-grade adventure.
Ten-year-old Henrietta “Etty” Steele thinks that all vampires drink blood and are evil, pale, coldblooded, and emotionless. She also believes that they see poorly in bright light, have “extremely white” teeth, and stink like cabbage and other rank substances. She knows this because her no-nonsense mother, Felicity Steele, told her so. Felicity is married to a much-loved grocer, but she isn’t very friendly herself. Neither does she put bows in Etty’s hair or encourage her to make friends. Instead, Felicity, as an undercover vampire hunter, expects her daughter to develop supernatural hunting skills. She trains Etty in cemetery reconnaissance and how to kill vampires that transform into bats. However, Etty is perplexed when her skills remain weak despite nonstop summer practice. She’s also confused by a gentle, stuttering vampire boy named Vladimir Nox, who doesn’t smell a bit noxious. It terrifies her when her only friend, April Showers, whose style is as bright and cheerful as hers is dark, befriends him. Like Etty and April, Vladimir has a first name he dislikes, so he asks to be called “Dimi” instead. April’s kind attitude toward him causes Etty to reconsider what she thinks she knows about vampires. Debut author Grave, a former primary school teacher, deftly draws readers into the story via Etty’s perspective with simple yet creepy language (“The further we walked, the darker the graveyard became”). There are some moments of violence in the brisk text, but the author effectively counters the tension with humor, as when Felicity slyly compliments a “ratty” vampire on his teeth that look “almost perfect,” and he replies, “I brush twice a day.” The book has a less-than-happy ending, but this may also lead to real-life discussions about parent-child conflicts.
A fun, fast-paced, and spooky read that may get young readers talking.Pub Date: July 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71783-616-8
Page Count: 178
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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