A suspenseful story about friends, family and sacrifice.
A debut YA novel set in a world of suspicion and violence, narrated by a condemned girl who suffers for the sake of her peers.
Cecily Daye is a seemingly average teenage girl. She lives on her family’s farm with her parents and brother, Dusty, in the fictional country of Stoughton. She has the requisite best friend, Laura Hardy; cranky teacher, Mrs. Dumphry; and adoring boyfriend, Nate Rowe. This semblance of normalcy is at risk, because Cecily is one of the sevens: seven girls “born on July seventeenth at seven-forty-seven p.m.,” who are expected “to become evil” on their 17th birthdays. Pastor Rowe, the hatred-spouting, whip-wielding religious leader of the town of Dunlowe, sees this as a clear indication of evil. “I believe she is trying to be good, but I believe she will fail,” the pastor says of Cecily. In his effort to keep the sevens’ evil at bay, he burdens the girls with a multitude of restrictions—known as “the traditions”—barring them from spending any time together lest they use their purported powers to collude against the town. When Laura dies on Cecily’s 17th birthday, Cecily bears the blame. Pastor Rowe places her in a pillory. The discipline escalates when Cecily makes a false confession in order to protect the other sevens, whom she eventually calls her sisters. Her public whipping galvanizes the girls’ resolve to flee the town that is positioned against them. The sevens’ adventures and revelations are portrayed with plentiful detail, but over time, the story weakens from too many elements. The town of Dunlowe, shivering under Pastor Rowe’s rule, is sufficiently enigmatic—not to mention terrifying—to create suspense and deliver thrills. When the sevens enter the Wild Wood—a forbidden area south of Dunlowe—they encounter monsters and immortals from a place called Darienne. Questions about their identity are finally answered, but the thoroughness of the answers is a disservice to the tale: The uncertainty is part of the fun.
A suspenseful story about friends, family and sacrifice.Pub Date: June 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985683900
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Young Mountain Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 27, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A smart, lively account of a revealing episode in economic history.
Hammes’ (Economics/Univ. of Hawaii-Hilo; Shaping Our Nation, 1988) nonfiction title sheds light on the great inventor’s eccentric, intriguing foray into economic theory.
With the nation suffering from a sharp depression in the early 1920s after the inflationary boom of World War I, Thomas Edison figured he could solve the economic malaise with a plan to back the value of money with farming commodities as an alternative to the gold standard. Under his scheme, farmers would deposit their harvest in government warehouses and receive half of its 25-year average price as a loan in dollars printed by the Federal Reserve, an amount that would be repaid over the course of a year as the crops were sold off. Edison hoped to provide farmers a more stable income and the country a more stable currency founded on real value; his proposal drew much acclaim from the public and press—and scorn from economists. (One professor suggested that Edison was senile.) Economist Hammes gives a detailed, highly readable exposition of Edison’s complex scheme and its surprising resemblance to modern-day policy innovations. The Federal Reserve, he notes, now seems to be running a similar program—only instead of giving farmers money in exchange for their wheat, it gives bankers money in exchange for their toxic mortgage-backed securities. He sets Edison’s ideas against a lucid explanation of money, inflation and the gold standard, as well as a nuanced analysis of America’s 19th-century monetary controversies. At the time, currency was a stormy political issue pitting debtors, farmers and exporters against bankers and creditors. In Hammes’ vivid portrait, Edison embodies these contradictions: He’s a captain of industry who had a profound suspicion of both the Wall Street financiers who backed him and the boom-and-bust cycles that almost bankrupted him. He also emerges as a great American amateur: half-genius, half-crank, convinced that a little common-sense tinkering could improve the economy where the experts had failed. Hammes illuminates the crucial role money plays not just in the economy, but also in the national character.
A smart, lively account of a revealing episode in economic history.Pub Date: March 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985066703
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Richard Mahler
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Passion balanced by intelligence runs through this beautiful, surprising novel about the restorative power of love.
In psychoanalyst Alexander’s debut novel, an accomplished young woman struggles to overcome her troubled past.
Kathleen Moore arrives at UCLA with more than her fair share of baggage. Often solitary, she’s evasive when it comes to her childhood, tumultuous years that were dominated by foster care. She also grapples with uncertainties regarding her future and her sexual identity. Still, she manages to make a few friends, including sympathetic Gary and Gayle, a therapist who evolves into a surrogate mother. The worst moments in Kathleen’s life are cushioned by such friends, who respond to her difficulties with extraordinary acts of kindness. Financial constraints and a compulsion to be of service lead Kathleen to pursue a medical career in the Army, which, in the era of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” requires her to put her love life on indefinite hold. An unanticipated injury in Iraq is the catalyst for her pursuit of a more authentic life in small-town California, particularly after she meets fiery yet nurturing Claire Hollander, who pushes Kathleen to prioritize her own happiness for the first time in her life. As with many first novels, Alexander’s debut is an ambitious project that seeks to cover considerable ground. The dense story spans multiple decades, including forays into the past. Still, though years may pass in a page, Alexander avoids abrupt transitions. The host of characters may seem excessive, but they’re all skillfully developed; collectively they inculcate the sense that generosity is not so rare a virtue as the hopeless among us might imagine. Rich, tactile prose brings to life settings as diverse as idyllic Canfield, Calif., and war-torn Iraq, while introspection and allusion keep the novel psychologically taut—a considerable feat considering the broad array of Kathleen’s anxieties.
Passion balanced by intelligence runs through this beautiful, surprising novel about the restorative power of love.Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0984689910
Page Count: 279
Publisher: The Storyteller and the Healer
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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