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POSSESSED

From the Pagan Light series , Vol. 1

A knotty and evocative search for identity.

Awards & Accolades

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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

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MAGIC HOUR

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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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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