A slow-paced but keenly written fantasy that should surely spark interest in the trilogy’s finale.
A famous pop star may have ties to a Colorado teen who disappeared three years ago in this second installment of a YA series.
Most people believe Ember Trouvé, who vanished as a high school senior, is no longer alive. But her best friend, Maddie Olson, now a college junior, refuses to accept Ember’s death while Jared Trouvé is practically obsessed with finding his sister. In fact, Jared is certain that pop singer Oshun is Ember. Though unconvinced, Maddie travels with Jared to catch one of Oshun’s concerts in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Xintra is an enigmatic woman with a sinister plan in Trinity, a Colorado forest that Ember first discovered in Book 1. Evidently, most who find Trinity Forest don’t have the ability to leave. But Xintra claims she and others share DNA with ancient beings, and she’s implemented a plot of genocide in the outside world to “elevate the superior race.” Indeed, a deadly virus is quickly spreading in various U.S. states, and the vaccine is seemingly ineffective. Readers know that Ember is in an unexplained dreamlike state, but if she really is Oshun, she may be the only one who can stop Xintra and her extermination plan. Alsever (Ember Burning, 2017), whose preceding novel centered on the ominous Trinity Forest, tones down the fantasy/horror aspects in Book 2. This leisurely paced volume offers primarily Maddie and Jared’s story. Fiercely loyal Maddie is determined to find her friend and ensure Jared, for whom she clearly has feelings, doesn’t go “off the deep end.” Nonetheless, Xintra, the indisputable villain, is terrifying; she controls “rebirthers” who do her bidding outside of Trinity Forest and occasionally employs torture. The author’s confident writing, as in her earlier book, is visually arresting: “My heart stretches in two different directions”; “His voice is no longer chocolate. It’s blood red.” Though reading the first installment is not a necessity, it does significantly enhance the sequel, particularly regarding someone in Trinity Forest who has a relationship with Ember.
A slow-paced but keenly written fantasy that should surely spark interest in the trilogy’s finale.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5215-1176-3
Page Count: 343
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 8, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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