Elegant prose is a highlight in a book whose memoirlike tone and heavy nostalgia make it feel like an offering for adults,...
A posthumously published coming-of-age story in which an old man recounts meeting his first love in New Mexico Territory in 1895.
From the moment 14-year-old Beth Delilah steps from the stagecoach into the small town of Ruidoso, 13-year-old Elijah is enraptured by her pale skin, blonde hair and blue eyes (traits that are fetishized throughout the story). The two become fast friends, but Beth Delilah and Señora Roja, a local woman believed to be a witch, are at odds. Through flashbacks, readers learn that Elijah was seduced by Señora Roja into an ongoing relationship. Though the affair is over, the past makes things awkward for Elijah, who is now intimate with Beth Delilah. When the two friends find Señora Roja torturing her niece, Rosa, they resolve to help but are too late to save her from a gruesome and bloody death—an event that traumatizes them both and leads to Beth Delilah’s disappearance. The details of this remembered time and place are rendered with love, though from a distance. Even Elijah’s “horrible” dreams of Señora Roja feel fixed in amber rather than immediately horrifying.
Elegant prose is a highlight in a book whose memoirlike tone and heavy nostalgia make it feel like an offering for adults, not teens. (Fiction. 17 & up)Pub Date: April 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-55885-766-7
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
While gay teens interested in paranormal romance and AIDS history could definitely do worse, this sometimes-busy and...
New York City in the early 1980s is a dark and dangerous scene, especially for a naïve young man from the Midwest.
Bryant Vess is staying with his cousin Wally and Wally’s boyfriend, Patrick, in New York City. Just as his new gay life is beginning to blossom with a sexy boyfriend, gay men across the city are beginning to fall ill with something that is, at first, called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency. At the same time, a series of grisly murders occur in the bathhouses, spawning newspaper articles about the “Village Vampire.” A bathhouse tryst with a mysterious stranger leaves Bryant sick—but not in the same way as his friends; he can’t stand the light and craves raw meat. When he returns to health, Bryant becomes certain that the dark stranger saved his life through this sex act. He hunts the man down to convince him to save everyone and finds himself drawn into an ancient secret society full of mysteries and dangers. A loosely connected companion to In Stone (2013), King’s sex-filled novel makes the most of its setting; the New York City bathhouse scene makes for a potent backdrop. Readers may well find the story’s internal paranormal logic problematic, as it draws some troubling connections among vampirism, homosexuality and AIDS.
While gay teens interested in paranormal romance and AIDS history could definitely do worse, this sometimes-busy and disjointed coming-of-age journal makes for an uncomfortable read. (Paranormal romance. 17 & up)Pub Date: Dec. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60282-971-8
Page Count: 367
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
While a glorious celebration of female power, this novel doesn’t quite fulfill its immense potential.
In this debut novel, the fate of a land rests on two young rulers with little in common.
In Yigris, there is Above and there is Under. Above are the nobles, ruled by a king. Under is home to thieves, assassins, and the queen who leads them. But the balance shifts when both rulers are assassinated and their heirs, Gemma and Tollan, must work together to save their people and Yigris. Gemma has spent most of her life preparing to be queen of Under, but nothing could have truly prepared her for this monumental task. Now she must rely on her training, a trusted band of friends, and a sheltered prince to stop a devastating war. Filak plays with interesting concepts of female empowerment: While Above is inherently patriarchal and misogynistic, Under is liberated and led by women. Although Gemma and the world of Under come vividly to life, other aspects of the novel fall flat. Readers will appreciate Gemma’s strength and wit, but Tollan is frustratingly ineffectual and ends up feeling more like a plot device than a central character. Gemma is white, and Tollan is dark-skinned as well as being gay and exploring his sexuality.
While a glorious celebration of female power, this novel doesn’t quite fulfill its immense potential. (Fantasy. 16-adult)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-62414-560-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
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