A well-paced comedy that doesn’t quite stick the landing.
Two cousins trapped under the same roof engage in psychological warfare.
Rod may not be very popular or live in a big house, but he has a tight group of friends, an up-and-coming band, and a perfectly sweet girlfriend. His dad abandoned the family, but Rod is close to his mom, a waitress. All in all, plenty to be thankful for. However, when his wealthy cousin Blake’s parents go on a three-month around-the-world cruise, guess who shows up for an extended visit? Blake and Rod get off on the wrong foot, and the pair’s conflict quickly devolves into a battle of wills and mutual sabotage. As Blake, with his high-handed arrogance, systematically chips away at Rod’s sanity, readers will howl with laughter, cringing as the author twists the screws at perfectly placed intervals. The resolution is a tad disappointing, but Rod’s narration is amusing, with a playful awareness of literary convention that makes for a breezy read. The tertiary characters are thin, particularly Rod’s band mates (readers may have trouble telling them apart), but the book aims for laughs, and it earns them. All major characters are assumed white.
A well-paced comedy that doesn’t quite stick the landing. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6202-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Fans of the series who managed to enjoy volumes four and five will be pleased to find more of the same
The Caretakers fight the mind-controlling Echthroi through a tangle of timelines.
This penultimate volume in the Imaginarium Geographica series features such a massive ensemble of dead white men that it's difficult to follow their storylines. Don Quixote, Aristophanes and a badger quest for magic armor. Charles Williams, original characters Rose and Edmund, H.G. Wells, Richard Burton and a Clash of the Titans–style mechanical owl travel in time. J.R.R. Tolkien and Jules Verne meet a secret society so packed with dead authors that six William Blake clones ("We call them Blake's Seven") fit right in. A Chinese librarian speaking pidgin English betrays the questers, Medea meets Gilgamesh, and triple agents abound. A goblin market is peopled with characters from The Last Unicorn who make jokes from Blazing Saddles; Nathaniel Hawthorne paraphrases the 1988 cult classic They Live; a future Caretaker quotes Darth Vader. "Jules Verne show[s] goats descended from the herds of Genghis Khan in a county fair in an Indian nation in America … " Confused yet? If not, perhaps you'll be able to make sense of a resolution that relies on pasts that never were and futures that might-have-been.
Fans of the series who managed to enjoy volumes four and five will be pleased to find more of the same . (Fantasy. 14-16)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-1223-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sensitive coming-of-age thriller.
Three contemporary teens accidentally meet at Yellow Lake in rural Wisconsin, where they share three life-changing days after witnessing a crime.
To escape her mother’s “latest crappy boyfriend,” 14-year-old Etta and her mom move to a trailer park near Yellow Lake. For Etta, the “good, safe feeling” lasts until her mom’s new boyfriend, Kyle, starts hanging around while her mom’s at work. Fifteen-year-old Peter lives in England. Shattered by his mother’s recent death, Peter surreptitiously borrows his father’s credit card and travels alone to Yellow Lake to bury a lock of her hair on the shore by the family cabin. Finally, leaving his single mother in Minneapolis because she joked about his “Indian phase,” 16-year-old Jonah randomly trespasses on land by Peter’s cabin, where he builds a wigwam and initiates a quest for his Ojibwe heritage. Subsequent events force the three to hide in the cabin, which they discover is the site of Kyle’s illegal methamphetamine operation. Told from their alternating and very diverse perspectives, the plot spins slowly, building into a suspenseful, high-action crescendo as the initially wary teens learn they can count on and even care about one another. Realistic characters, palpable fear, budding first love, and a touch of Native American ethos add to this well-crafted debut.
Sensitive coming-of-age thriller. (Thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: June 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84780-287-3
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Review Posted Online: April 17, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
