by John Mark Mitchell ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 16, 2018
A purposefully (and sometimes unintentionally) disturbing tale with a Native American protagonist and political undertones.
An outcast tries to figure out her place in a world that fears and desires her in this debut dystopian novel.
Elle—so named for the L-shaped scar on the back of her neck—is the lone Native American still living in the United States following a policy of expulsion. She lives in the Sylum, a nun-operated “Refuge for the Conflicted” in the middle of a wasteland, and can only remember the past six weeks. Elle struggles to make sense of the world around her, the disturbing dreams that haunt her, and the unusual, deadly powers she possesses. She’s already UA—Unethnically American, in the new parlance. Some people think she might also be a Soup, or superhuman, though that wouldn’t be any better: “Whispers that told me all I needed to know about how people viewed those powerful beings. All I knew was everyone feared and hated ’em. I may be the only native left in America, and considered UA, but those Soups looked down on all humanity.” Elle seems destined to bring about some sort of apocalypse—the only word she uttered when she was found six weeks ago. The key question is: an apocalypse for whom? Mitchell appears to intend the book to be a satire along the lines of A Clockwork Orange, and the dystopia he creates is quite believable. Elle speaks in a dialect out of Mark Twain, which is perhaps supposed to highlight her lack of education but will mostly just make readers uncomfortable: “I got a pair of bony elbows kickin’ out like the hind legs of a brayin’, buck-eyed mule, and swelterin’ arm flab quiverin’ under these shirt sleeves.” The n-word appears frequently and is used by Elle to refer to African American characters (including one named Jemima). The fact that the protagonist eventually learns that the word is offensive does not really justify its gratuitous use. Readers will leave the book with a sense that the author—a Brit—does not have a complete handle on the nuances of race in America. His satire of it, at least, misses the mark quite widely.
A purposefully (and sometimes unintentionally) disturbing tale with a Native American protagonist and political undertones.Pub Date: Dec. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71807-308-1
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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