Despite its heavy-handed titular metaphor, this novel succeeds in injecting fun and adventure into the psychology of...
In Calicchia’s debut YA fantasy novel, two sisters fight to destroy a powerful dark angel with the ability to taint humans’ views of themselves.
Despite her spirited disposition and kung fu know-how, 17-year-old Cailyssa Larkin doesn’t like the person she sees in the mirror—and she’s destroyed several mirrors because of it. She has three good friends and a plucky younger sister, Terry, who all attend the same high school she does, but otherwise, Cailyssa is an outsider there. One day, while she and her friends are at the mall, Cailyssa spots Daemon, her sullen, gothic heartthrob, sitting alone at a food-court table. Daemon invites her to meet him later at her peculiar Uncle Spencer’s mirror-filled house, a location forbidden by her parents. She manages to leave home that evening on the pretext of going to the mall, but her parents force her to bring Terry along. When the sisters arrive at the house, they find Daemon curiously dressed in medieval garb. In the largest of the mirrors, Uncle Spencer unveils a terrifying vision to Cailyssa: an apocalyptic near-future world ruled by hatred and self-loathing. Using the same mirror as a portal, Cailyssa enters Mirror World, a Tolkien-esque realm under the pall of fallen angel Lord Speculus, who can influence what people see when they look at themselves in mirrors. After an attack from the dark lord, Cailyssa convenes with Terry, Daemon, and Uncle Spencer at the Larkin family castle, where she discovers supernatural abilities and a surprising family history. In the safety of the castle, she begins to plot a strategy to destroy Speculus and keep him from spreading his terror to Earth. Cailyssa’s spunky narration is winning enough to freshen up this novel’s familiar fantasy and YA genre trappings despite its occasional shifts from first- to third-person. The final battle’s sustained, palpable peril also staves off predictability. However, Daemon fares poorly as a love interest due in part to his clunky, chauvinistic, antiquated-sounding diction (“I was angry because I was disgusted with your behavior. You were acting like a traipse!”). His depiction appropriates some of the eerier aspects of Twilight’s Edward Cullen—Daemon watches Cailyssa while she sleeps, for example—which may make it hard for some readers to root for the inevitable romance.
Despite its heavy-handed titular metaphor, this novel succeeds in injecting fun and adventure into the psychology of self-perception.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9861020-0-4
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Psychangel Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A must-have for history buffs.
The authors (The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Vs. Lizzie A. Borden, 1994) return with a riveting history of the flourishing small town of Fall River, Mass., and its most infamous resident, Lizzie Borden.
It’s been more than eight decades since the death of Lizzie Borden, but interest in the gruesome ax murders that made her famous lives on. This book isn’t intended as a commentary on those murders of August 4, 1892, or speculation about her guilt or innocence; instead, it provides insight into Lizzie Borden, the woman, the city in which she spent most of her life and the society that would later judge her. According to documents, young Lizzie’s implication in her parents’ murders wasn’t based on evidence but merely suggestion and “village gossip.” Varying points of view on the family’s relations—especially between Lizzie and her stepmother—were recorded, but most townspeople distorted the Borden’s evidently normal familial disagreements into a sinister light, spurred on by the macabre events that transpired. The book, culled from exhaustive research by the curators of the Fall River Historical Society, offers an alternate perspective to the previously known particulars. The authors share unprecedented access to never-before-seen documents, memorabilia and other information. The result is an ambitious tome featuring a plethora of information and replete with beautiful photographs. Though the narrative and history are nonlinear, the telling flows seamlessly. The fateful events of August 4, 1892, are discussed early on, but references are peppered throughout, with additional perspective and data. Fall River itself is a compelling character: Its main claim to fame may be Lizzie Borden, but the town—one of the first to open a free library in the United States, in 1860—also persevered through two devastating fires, the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination and multiple instances of embezzlement. Every page may not be dedicated to the Borden family, but the lush history of the town and its many residents somehow connect to the family and its notorious daughter.
A must-have for history buffs.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0964124813
Page Count: 1138
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sound advice, no matter your age.
A self-help book about staying active as you age.
Prolific writer McHugh (Aging with Grace—Whoever She Is, 2011, etc.) has tackled topics as diverse as veterinary medicine, death and dying, and three mystery novels. Her half-dozen self-help titles deal with aging, a field in which, at 83, she’s highly qualified. In this text, she includes a number of photos of herself; she appears to have benefitted from her list of “10 ways to get more energy.” Her vivacity adds a personal touch to the recommendations she makes for this slender book’s 100 topics, most of which take up a single page and are based on her own experience. Some of the suggestions are dated (“Listen to the Beatles” or Judy Collins); some are luxuriously over-the-top for a person on a fixed income (“Swim with a dolphin” or travel to Greece); and some are creative (“Take a baby to lunch” or ride in a hot air balloon). But the genuine tenderness of her personal comments paired with her lavish imagination makes this book a breezy, lightweight read. It almost doesn’t matter that its premise is demographically flawed: A woman in her 50s, or even early 60s, is most likely still a career woman, without the leisure time to pursue these sometimes extravagant ways of feeling young. The target audience appears to be a married woman with free time and the funds to take advantage of her advice—an empty nester or perhaps a baby boomer—but that woman is probably not in her 50s.
Sound advice, no matter your age.Pub Date: May 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475218299
Page Count: 122
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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