Sometimes too straightforward, yet still an enjoyable time-travel thriller.
In Felson’s debut novel, a young Army volunteer is mysteriously transported through time and space.
Sixteen-year-old Charlie Bradshaw is a fairly typical video game–loving, gung-ho Army private (however, the current minimum age for joining the U.S. Army is 17). His Arkansas family is proud of him, but his fellow grunts tend to make fun of him for his extreme youth and naïveté. He’s training on base one day when a freak storm barrels through, and a thunderous tornado snatches Charlie up and appears to disintegrate him. Twenty-one years later, he falls out of the sky, unconscious, onto a San Francisco beach, where a jogging couple finds him. Charlie hasn’t aged—he’s still a teenager—but many things about the world around him have changed: Miniaturized digital technology is everywhere, cars and homes run on electric or solar power instead of fossil fuels, childbirth is regulated by law, and the air is full of free-floating advertising. Paul arrives in a deep coma, and even before he awakens, he becomes a celebrity, the focus of a messianic cult convinced he’s a harbinger of the end of the world. He becomes the unconscious star of The Beach Boy Real Show, a reality TV show orchestrated entirely around viewers waiting for him to wake up. Just as the Army is finally managing to identify him from decades-old records, Charlie wakes up from his coma with no memories of his past but with a vision of the future: He vividly “remembers” a major California earthquake that hasn’t yet happened. News that the “coma kid on TV” has awakened causes a media sensation, and the resulting religious mania engulfs Charlie as the story steadily escalates toward the massive earthquake Charlie had predicted (and which his religious followers naturally view as Judgment Day). Felson manages the increasing pace and momentum of his fairly simple plot with a good deal of readable prose, eventually rolling out a series of unpredictable turns that play human drama against the backdrop of looming natural catastrophe. The dialogue can be rough and stilted in some places, and Charlie himself remains a cipher throughout, but the exciting climax makes up for it.
Sometimes too straightforward, yet still an enjoyable time-travel thriller.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2011
ISBN: 978-0956558008
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Two Colors Ventures
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.
A fifth-grade New Orleans girl discovers a mysterious chrysalis containing an unexpected creature in this middle-grade novel.
Jacquelyn Marie Johnson, called Jackie, is a 10-year-old African-American girl, the second oldest and the only girl of six siblings. She’s responsible, smart, and enjoys being in charge; she likes “paper dolls and long division and imagining things she had never seen.” Normally, Jackie has no trouble obeying her strict but loving parents. But when her potted snapdragon acquires a peculiar egg or maybe a chrysalis (she dubs it a chrysalegg), Jackie’s strong desire to protect it runs up against her mother’s rule against plants in the house. Jackie doesn’t exactly mean to lie, but she tells her mother she needs to keep the snapdragon in her room for a science project and gets permission. Jackie draws the chrysalegg daily, waiting for something to happen as it gets larger. When the amazing creature inside breaks free, Jackie is more determined than ever to protect it, but this leads her further into secrets and lies. The results when her parents find out are painful, and resolving the problem will take courage, honesty, and trust. Dumas (Jaden Toussaint, the Greatest: Episode 5, 2017, etc.) presents a very likable character in Jackie. At 10, she’s young enough to enjoy playing with paper dolls but has a maturity that even older kids can lack. She’s resourceful, as when she wants to measure a red spot on the chrysalegg; lacking calipers, she fashions one from her hairpin. Jackie’s inward struggle about what to obey—her dearest wishes or the parents she loves—is one many readers will understand. The book complicates this question by making Jackie’s parents, especially her mother, strict (as one might expect to keep order in a large family) but undeniably loving and protective as well—it’s not just a question of outwitting clueless adults. Jackie’s feelings about the creature (tender and responsible but also more than a little obsessive) are similarly shaded rather than black-and-white. The ending suggests that an intriguing sequel is to come.
In more ways than one, a tale about young creatures testing their wings; a moving, entertaining winner.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-943169-32-0
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Plum Street Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.
In the ninth book in the Bluford young-adult series, a young Latino man walks away from violence—but at great personal cost.
In a large Southern California city, 16-year-old Martin Luna hangs out on the fringes of gang life. He’s disaffected, fatherless and increasingly drawn into the orbit of the older, rougher Frankie. When a stray bullet kills Martin’s adored 8-year-old brother, Huero, Martin seems to be heading into a life of crime. But Martin’s mother, determined not to lose another son, moves him to another neighborhood—the fictional town of Bluford, where he attends the racially diverse Bluford High. At his new school, the still-grieving Martin quickly makes enemies and gets into trouble. But he also makes friends with a kind English teacher and catches the eye of Vicky, a smart, pretty and outgoing Bluford student. Martin’s first-person narration supplies much of the book’s power. His dialogue is plain, but realistic and believable, and the authors wisely avoid the temptation to lard his speech with dated and potentially embarrassing slang. The author draws a vivid and affecting picture of Martin’s pain and confusion, bringing a tight-lipped teenager to life. In fact, Martin’s character is so well drawn that when he realizes the truth about his friend Frankie, readers won’t feel as if they are watching an after-school special, but as though they are observing the natural progression of Martin’s personal growth. This short novel appears to be aimed at urban teens who don’t often see their neighborhoods portrayed in young-adult fiction, but its sophisticated characters and affecting story will likely have much wider appeal.
A YA novel that treats its subject and its readers with respect while delivering an engaging story.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2004
ISBN: 978-1591940173
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Townsend Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 26, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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