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
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
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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