An immensely likable protagonist and consistently absorbing plot lay the groundwork for a promising series.
In debut author Ritchie’s first entry in a planned YA fantasy trilogy, a teenager is targeted by strange creatures in her small town.
Twyla Sokolovsky has been plagued with nightmares since her father’s murder a decade ago. The killer was a “monster” with “glowing red eyes,” and she only narrowly escaped death herself. However, everything else seems fine as she enters her senior year at East Riverbed High; she even makes the cheerleading squad, along with her best friend, Carol. But trouble starts with the arrival of a ruggedly handsome new student named Hunter Black. A teacher enlists Twyla to show Hunter around the school, as they attend the same classes. However, head cheerleader and resident bully Sarah White takes offense to their burgeoning relationship, as she feels entitled to first dibs on the attractive new guy. Shortly afterward, a creature, just like the one from 10 years ago, attacks Twyla in the woods. Later, Carol shockingly sides with Sarah’s hateful “minions” against Twyla. Soon Twyla begins to suspect that there are other supernatural beings in the area, other than the red-eyed monsters—and they’ll go to extreme lengths to keep her quiet about their existence. Ritchie’s novel offers a stellar blend of fantastic goings-on and teenage high school struggles. The author effectively sketches out Twyla’s everyday travails before the preternatural elements creep in; for instance, it turns out that Sarah has taunted the protagonist for years. The story becomes unnerving in later chapters, when it becomes clear that established characters, such as Hunter, are hiding something big. Twyla’s first-person narration is convincing, and her frequent ruminations are neurotic but charming: “Are monsters real? Did I get attacked by one? Was that real too? Most importantly, am I really falling in love with this guy?” Despite conspicuous similarities to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, this story gradually reveals an original plot that stands on its own. The final chapter takes a radical turn that resolves lingering questions and deftly sets up a sequel.
An immensely likable protagonist and consistently absorbing plot lay the groundwork for a promising series.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5255-2582-7
Page Count: 228
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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