A promising debut that could find success beyond the YA market.
This hefty sci-fi novel features dangerous treks, tortured relationships, and hidden histories.
Debut novelist Latshaw creates a split world, with the Kith (remnants of the Apriori, i.e., humans) literally at the top—in this case, atop a mountain—and down below, past the Cloudline, the beastly, much feared Croathus, aka the Threatbelow. Centuries before, the Kith fled for their lives from the Croathus and sought safety on Mountaintop, where the Croathus cannot live due to the thin air. But it is a pinched existence, and now the Kith’s water supply, which originates down below, is being poisoned. A few characters push the story forward, including Tranton, the evil and ambitious Kith counselor; Icelyn Brathius, the young heroine who carries most of the story; Adorane, her childhood friend; and Eveshone, her beautiful Croathus ally. Icelyn, Adorane, and a small band go below to stop the poisoning and save the Kith. But only Icelyn, Adorane, and a few others make it through Cloudline alive, and things get much worse as the heroes push further. A small band of the Croathus is loyal to these Apriori, but thousands more are sworn enemies, and the Croathus are incredible killing machines. Revelations come thick and fast, and it turns out that the Kith are far from the innocent victims that they seemed. Eventually, the return to Mountaintop does not go well, though it does set the stage for a sequel. The characters—especially Icelyn—are well-drawn, as are their tortuous relationships. This isn’t just about saving the world—it’s about a teenager coming to know herself, a task almost as daunting. Serious ideas about morality and even godhood are grist for the mill. On the other hand, passages involving a teacher named Belubus and a hokey interlude in the Mines are dead ends that could have been discarded. And a few questions remain: why did it take so long for the Croathus to poison the water supply? Did Tranton have something to do with it?
A promising debut that could find success beyond the YA market.Pub Date: July 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-943846-78-8
Page Count: 504
Publisher: Fernweh Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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