A few stumbles but a solid and multilayered thriller.
In this debut YA paranormal novel, a clairvoyant teenage girl tries to hunt down a serial killer.
Ten years ago, when Casey Darling was 7 years old, she was overwhelmed with a sudden, vivid vision of her father dying in a car accident. Not only that, she experienced her dad’s terrifying death with him, together with his final memories and last regrets. Ever since, Casey has unwillingly experienced others’ final moments in the same striking way. Her twin sister, Christina, coped with the trauma of their father’s death by developing selective mutism, and their mother spiraled into alcoholism, leaving Casey to take on many family responsibilities. Casey avoids all but a small group of close cohorts, so when Cameron, a new student in their Cartersville, Georgia, school, pursues her friendship, her first concern is how to make him stop, despite his California golden-boy looks and confidence. But when her clairvoyance shows Cameron cutting his own wrist—the first time her ability doesn’t display a death—she wants to help him. At the same time, Casey begins experiencing terrifying murders committed by a masked serial killer with cold blue eyes—and one of his victims is a friend. Casey’s attempts to track the culprit bring her under suspicion, but she’ll need to gain the trust of law enforcement to stop him. Meanwhile, old family secrets come to light. In her novel, Branton combines YA romance, the paranormal, and a madman-on-the-loose plot to good dramatic effect. Casey and her circle of friends are well-drawn, with an effective balance of personalities, including a popular and confident bisexual boy. Christina becomes important to the story in unexpected ways that add interest and suspense. Nevertheless, the author does sometimes overdo the melodrama: “December appeared, shaking the trees into their shocking state of bareness.” And some plot obstacles don’t work well: Casey’s refusal to disclose her ability drags on a bit; teenagers make bad decisions even for teenagers; and no one would go to jail for leaving the scene of an accident while being pursued by a psycho killer.
A few stumbles but a solid and multilayered thriller.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9997510-2-2
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Charlie's Port Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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