by J Alex Ruiz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 2019
A robust historical fantasy showcasing the Egyptian pantheon and the strength of family.
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This debut fantasy follows the travails of an ancient Egyptian peasant girl impregnated by a god.
Thirteen-year-old Anggun is newly a woman. In the peasant village of Arrousa, her family performs the Dawning Ritual by leaving beer for Ra, God of the Day. Nunuco, Anggun’s mother, is a widow and doesn’t take the ritual as seriously as her father-in-law, Iawii, would like. If the family’s offerings please Ra, he will take Anggun to heaven, where she’ll live in comfort and beauty. Later, as Anggun sings in a field, she does attract a deity. Set, the God of Storms, approaches in the form of a black snake. He eventually morphs into a powerful man, forcing himself on the girl before vanishing. When Anggun’s twin brother, Gunang, and their younger brother, Buku, find her, she’s burned but otherwise uninjured. At home, Anggun’s belly grows with shocking speed. Unbeknown to anyone, Nunuco removes a red scale from her daughter’s body, keeping it hidden. Iawii believes that Anggun “brought this on herself” and trusts in aid from the High Priests of Horus. But Nunuco learns that Iawii’s brother, Mekheb, is a Priest of Set living in the city of Neqada. Surely, he can help with Anggun’s supernatural pregnancy. Ruiz blends impressive historical research, family dynamics, and frank depictions of sex in her series opener. Readers learn not just about the narrative’s principal deities, but also about others who shaped ancient Egyptian life. “Ptah created Himself out of Chaos,” Mekheb says of the god who originated thought, “So, when you think to yourself, that is an aspect of Ptah in you.” The author also reveals lovely fusions of nature and architecture, as “orange light streamed between long rows of tall red and black columns that lined the temple’s outer courtyard.” Still, even readers with strong stomachs should prepare for Anggun’s intense sexual assault and, later, Gunang’s descent into drug use and prostitution. Egypt’s Crown Prince Imseti, who’s sure that Set’s child is a girl and is determined to pair with her, is the perfect villain to enliven the sequel.
A robust historical fantasy showcasing the Egyptian pantheon and the strength of family.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-08-743730-9
Page Count: 662
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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