A chaotic, full-throttle parody that’s as smart as it is slimy.
In this sci-fi debut, an alien species hopes to claim Earth, but the invaders haven’t fully researched what goes bump in the night.
At NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, astrophysicist Jean-François receives some exciting data in the middle of the night. His theory that an interstellar vessel has been using wormholes to visit Earth for the last 50 years now seems irrefutable. Yet his boss, Raymond Saticoy, wants physical proof of aliens before telling the president. Meanwhile, President Michael Addison greases palms at a fundraiser at the Watergate Hotel. With him are the lovely first lady, Laurel, and his no-nonsense vice president, Peyton Willis. What neither politician realizes, however, is that Laurel slays vampires on the side, doing her best to clear Washington, D.C., of bloodsuckers. Her nemesis is Julius, a nearly 3,000-year-old vamp who tonight has chosen the sweet young Mary to feast upon. They leave a bar in southeast Georgia and stroll toward the Heartsoot Creek Cemetery. When he finally pops his fangs into her neck, her true form of a “bug-eyed, insect-like creature” stands revealed. She escapes through a wormhole, leaving Julius speechless. And what does any of this craziness have to do with AWOL Pvt. Johnny Kester? By the time Johnny witnesses a nearby military base explode, Abugov has readers firmly in the grip of his absurd, satisfying creaturefest. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer should adore Laurel, and those cringing at the current state of the world may chuckle when Addison says, “I got all these nukes. Such a pity I can’t use them.” As the aliens attack, causing quick, massive casualties, Willis tells the nation, “There are no countries anymore. Just us, and them.” The author maximizes the carnage when alien goop infects people, turning them into the walking dead. Dinosaurs, appearing in only brief interludes except at the finale, prove the ultimate narrative wild card. The most engaging aspect of this gonzo mashup is seeing which characters rise to the occasion and which end up with their “vital digestive organs” yanked free.
A chaotic, full-throttle parody that’s as smart as it is slimy.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-692-58103-2
Page Count: 290
Publisher: J-Stroke Productions
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
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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