An intriguing, if occasionally obtuse, mixture of the historical and the supernatural.
A debut novel about a group of mysterious, night-dwelling creatures and their travels through history.
“Although there is of course no acknowledgment of their existence in our world, I can most emphatically attest to their presence.” So begins this story of the dark creatures known as Night-Travelers—or so they’re called by W. Arthur Richardson, a 1930s writer. He finds himself transfixed by a man named Jean Sylvan, who has good manners, stays in excellent hotels, and isn’t fond of the daytime. Richardson sees him take a young, timid coat-check girl into his company one night, and when he sees her again the next evening, transformed into a woman of the world, he knows something’s up, but he’s not sure exactly what. The girl mysteriously disappears shortly afterward, which, in that era, might have been chalked up as a replaceable loss of the lower orders—were it not for her concerned husband, Jack, who teams up with Richardson in his investigation. So begins a saga that eventually stretches all the way back to 1351 Scandinavia. It also extends forward to 1970s Vermont, where a graduate student named Fran picks up an unassuming hitchhiker wearing a dirty, calico skirt. When strange memories start flooding Fran’s mind, she’s swept up in a whirlwind of activity that eventually involves an aged, though still fiery, Jack. This ambitious novel has a complex scenario and an epic scale. Although the astute reader will surmise that Night-Travelers (or “Nåttfolk,” as they’re also called) are essentially vampires, the book manages to avoid many clichés of the horror genre. The tale is filled with ideas about memory and history, and fantastic and suspenseful scenes, as when a mysterious woman named Pamela Baldwin seeks shelter (“The Sun would be coming soon, and seized with panic, Pamela found herself on the porch of Jack’s farmhouse”). That said, the book can be muddled at times, due to its complexity and shifting cast of characters, and some portions prove difficult to follow. Some readers may get lost in shuffles of time, space and memory, as author Saknusseneouw attempts to distance the Nåttfolk from their more familiar literary cousins.
An intriguing, if occasionally obtuse, mixture of the historical and the supernatural.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2013
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 393
Publisher: Musketaquid House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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