A knotty and evocative search for identity.
A teenage girl with psychic powers must deal with persecution and relationship issues in this coming-of-age YA paranormal novel.
Seventeen-year-old Jackie Turov is known at school as “Goth Girl” or “Virgin Queen,” the latter because she had a vision in church when she was 12, one that tragically came true, the former because she now dresses in goth style, trying to distance herself from the notoriety of that incident. The problem is Jackie’s prescience wasn’t a one-off. She picks up on emotions and cannot help “reading” any person or object she touches. Among her peers, she is a pariah—a freak. Even her father can’t cope with her strangeness. He divorced Jackie’s mother and moved away. Despite this, Jackie has found her place. She has good relationships with her mom and great-grandmother. She has a small but tight group of friends. But this is about to change. After a bad solar storm leaves the town rife with psychic energy, Trish, one of Jackie’s friends, calls a demon into the world to stir up negative emotions. Jackie’s best pal, Jason, wants to be more than friends. David, a young seminarian, tries to entice Jackie back to church. She is conflicted: Can she master her emotions, or will the shell she’s made for herself crack apart? In this series opener, Keltner (Obsession, 2013, etc.) writes simply but effectively in the third person, crafting characters from small details while striking a good balance between the story’s paranormal and personal threads. Jackie’s Russian background adds unobtrusive depth to her situation. The fact that neither she nor her mother speaks Russian—while her great-grandmother doesn’t converse in English—evokes an assimilation that contrasts with Jackie’s being made an outcast for nonethnic reasons. Jackie’s religious upbringing makes her shun her powers, and this question of self runs through all aspects of her life. In terms of romance, the interlocking love triangles (Jackie-Jason-Trish; Jason-Jackie-David) seem quite natural in their shifting patterns. The dialogue sits well. All told, Jackie’s story moves quickly and engagingly, and though the ending is perhaps a bit chaotic, teen readers will find much to like here.
A knotty and evocative search for identity.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-79165-741-3
Page Count: 333
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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