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TENT CITY CONVOY

While the thematic impact falls short of its apocalyptic potential, this is still a dark page-turner of a read.

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A near-future America is transformed into a lawless hellscape as global warming dispossesses hundreds of thousands of people in Willis’ speculative thriller.

In 2086, as the waters of the Atlantic continue to rise, swallowing up entire communities—including Jamestown, Virginia, where Marg Bernard and her family live—the housewife and mother is faced with a nightmarish situation. After her husband drowns attempting to prevent the visitors center where he works from flooding, Marg and her children (15-year-old Susan and 9-year-old Quentin) set out from their dilapidated house to seek sanctuary elsewhere. The journey quickly devolves into a horrifying struggle to survive, as they’re forced to live with a nomadic tent community, enduring frequent hurricanes and the quickly approaching winter while also steering clear of violent locals who are fearful of the influx of migrants into their towns (“We don’t cotton to those gypsies around here”). As Marg desperately tries to find a path that leads to some kind of stability for herself and her children, matters become even more complicated when a figure from her past—a mentally unstable man who sexually assaulted her years earlier—finds her and tries to reestablish what he perceived as love and intimacy with her again. The intensity and complexity of emotions animate the writing—hope and courage constantly do battle with fear, sadness, anger, and despair. The all-too-plausible setting is an obvious strength, as is the dynamic between Marg and her kids, but the narrative has some areas that could be improved. The conclusion is too abrupt and lacks a strong thematic takeaway. There are no enlightening revelations at the novel’s end, just a sense of the difficulty of surviving the horrors of life and finding some kind of happiness and meaning amid the chaos and brutality of existence. But that may very well be the point.

While the thematic impact falls short of its apocalyptic potential, this is still a dark page-turner of a read.

Pub Date: April 14, 2023

ISBN: 9781960675811

Page Count: 294

Publisher: Authors' Tranquility Press

Review Posted Online: June 26, 2023

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  • New York Times Bestseller

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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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

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NOW OR NEVER

As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.

Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.

The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.

As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.

Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024

ISBN: 9781668003138

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024

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