An inventive and briskly paced addition to a fantasy saga.
A tireless hero must contend with a sorceress to ensure the gates to a magical world don’t close permanently in this fifth entry of a YA series.
Dan Hillman is once again in the magical realm of Inland. He and his changeling girlfriend, Maggie, have finally located the First Changing Beast, a mysterious being stuck in the Shadowlands lying somewhere between Inland and Outland (the normal world). If Dan can free the beast, the slowly closing gates between the two realms will likely stay open. This is harder than it sounds: Inland sorceress Sister, the mortal who had been swapped years ago for fairy Maggie, is controlling the beast. Dan and Maggie have learned Sister’s “truename,” which can reverse her power over the creature. But Dan first has to decipher the name’s twofold meaning. Recent information indicates Sister and her army are plotting an attack against the Gatekeepers in Gatemoodle. Dan’s worries are compounded when he and a handful of friends hear the wail of the enigmatic Skriker, which means one of them will die. Sadly, following a grim battle, Dan indeed loses a loved one. He consequently makes a decision he knows will entail sacrificing one of his freedoms, but he can’t foresee the devastating loss he will ultimately endure. From the opening pages, there’s a sense of trepidation in Rosegrant’s (Marrowland, 2017, etc.) novel. As the fantasy series has already established Sister and the need to find the beast, Dan and allies are immediately discussing strategy and the impending battle, generating a wealth of suspense. The author likewise aptly describes action involving mythical creatures: “The two ugly giants charged, scything their trees above their heads…kobolds and goblins swarmed behind them in a landslide.” Dan is a sympathetic protagonist; his genuine connection to so many individuals, including pals in Outland, should have readers sharing his fear for the Skriker’s destined victim. The ending packs a punch, and though a few more installments are feasible, this book shows signs of the series’ forthcoming conclusion.
An inventive and briskly paced addition to a fantasy saga.Pub Date: June 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73233-940-8
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Mithril House
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2018
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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