A noble, animalistic hero leads an action-packed romp.
In first-time novelist Hajduk’s supernatural tale, a man uses newfound, unusual powers to thwart a sinister plan unfolding at the company where he’s employed.
Thirty-two-year-old Gus Shepard is intelligent but has no ambition, content with his job at a biotech company. This changes when a strange man at a flea market gives him a “god dog,” which Gus mishears as guard dog. The dog and Gus are in a car accident, after which the former inexplicably vanishes. But Gus’ parents have previously encountered a god dog; this one, according to his mom, has transferred its energy into Gus. Though already skilled in martial arts, Gus has picked up a few abilities, like “super-enhanced vision” and a keen sense of smell. He uses these skills to rescue a young boy walking into oncoming traffic and a Chihuahua from heartless gangsters. But Gus’ dad, formerly special forces, surmises a war of good vs. evil is imminent and sends his son to an old friend for weapons training. It turns out there’s something nefarious underway at Gus’ workplace, which has a link to his love interest, the enigmatic Lisa. Gus concocts a plan to foil the diabolical scheme. Hajduk gives his protagonist a curious backstory: Years ago, his father smuggled his mother out of North Korea. And Gus’ accompanying canine traits—he tracks someone by scent like “a trained hound dog”—make him an atypical hero. The narrative is initially composed of seemingly unrelated events: Early on, Gus has a run-in with Mexican thugs and plots revenge against an ex who helped herself to his bank account. However, most of these events and characters knit together in a memorably frantic final act. The action scenes throughout are vibrantly detailed: Gus tosses a baddie into a “Ferris Wheel” spin, and a multi-jeep confrontation ends “with an explosive crunch.”
A noble, animalistic hero leads an action-packed romp.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-9790-1326-0
Page Count: 228
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
