An optimistic supernatural tale with both fresh and familiar ingredients.
In this YA fantasy, tragedy leads a young woman to a new life, unusual friends, and the truth about her recurring nightmares.
Eighteen-year-old Shanntal of Greyton isn’t sleeping well. Her nightmares involve pursuit through the woods, a red-eyed figure, and a craving for blood. She hopes that her best friend, 20-year-old Ginata, will provide relief. Her parents drop her off at her spunky friend’s home for a sleepover, and Ginata suggests playing with a Ouija board. When a spirit named Daray answers, the game quickly takes a dark turn. The Ouija planchette spells out “I-WILL-FIND-YOU,” and Shanntal assumes she’s the target. The next evening, Ginata’s parents drive Shanntal home only to find a dark, empty-looking residence. Inside, Shanntal’s parents and younger siblings have been killed—drained of blood. After a hospital stay, she moves in with Auntie Stephanie and Uncle Danier on Blackwood Island. Life is lonely there until she meets Jayce Fallon, who has “deep brown eyes” and a sympathetic ear. He takes her to Mystic Beach and introduces his own friends—Terran, Aiden, Makan, and Meriel—who happen to be the immortal avatars of earth, air, fire, and water. Shanntal is amazed but can’t help but wonder what she’s done to deserve such a remarkable crop of new friends. In her novel, Blyth (Stormy Saturday, 2015) teases the answer while crafting a tense romantic triangle with Jayce, the telepathic keeper of the elements; Daray, a vampire with ties to Shanntal’s past; and the protagonist, whose memories of childhood are hazy. While Jayce’s mental connection to Shanntal is intrusive and potentially domineering, he promises to behave himself and “give space whenever needed.” Their lives together could be perfect, and the author deftly conveys that first splash into love (“I felt lightheaded, and my lips burned hot”). But vampires, werewolves, and hoofed doomahorns complicate their situation. On Shanntal’s side, aside from elementals, are unicorns, fairies, and shape-shifters like Layla. Though Blyth takes readers through familiar genre terrain (like the Twilight series), Shanntal’s determination to be more than a damsel in distress is key to her appeal.
An optimistic supernatural tale with both fresh and familiar ingredients.Pub Date: Dec. 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-64361-213-3
Page Count: 376
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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