A visceral debut novel set against the splendor of a national treasure.
This thriller follows four college students as a stalker hunts them on the Appalachian Trail.
Jerry Allen, Diane Cain, Linda Baldwin, and Bill Martin are students from Appalachian State University on their semester break. They’ve decided to hike the Appalachian Trail from Tennessee through North Carolina and into Virginia. As a couple, Diane and Bill have hiked sections of the trail before, but lovers Jerry and Linda are new to the experience. The foursome travels without cellphones, though, which proves to be a dangerous mistake: Diane, while relieving herself away from the group, gets sexually assaulted by a stranger. Bill insists on hunting down the perpetrator, even if they must leave the trail for the deeper woods. When they camp for the night, their wilderness-wise stalker toys with them by circling the camp and throwing firecrackers. Eventually, Bill gets separated from his friends; he has a limited knowledge of the land and finite supplies, so the others must decide whether to search for him or abandon him and save themselves. Diane, meanwhile, harbors a secret that could radically change the whole dynamic of the trip. Later, as exhaustion and fear lead to accidental injuries and deadly weather closes in, the students’ faith in God is tested in ways that rarely happen in everyday life. Author House (So Shall You Reap, 2011, etc.) injects his book with plenty of firsthand experience of the Appalachian Trail, bringing the loveliness of the locale to life (“Brilliant flowers of every color...nestled against the background like splatters of fluorescent paint”). He never shies from detailing his characters’ injuries (“Blood and trapped bowel fluid flowed out, soaking his clothes, resulting in a frozen mass against his skin”), though, or the primitive methods they use to treat them. The young people’s biting quips also feel true-to-life (“Reality was a bitch and in this case it had a name—Diane”). They frequently thank God for small miracles, and by the end, love helps redeem them during the horrifying resolution. Ultimately, House delivers an excellent message about building character through trial.
A visceral debut novel set against the splendor of a national treasure.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-68058-038-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Limitless Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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