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RED, RIGHT, RETURN

A perfect summer thriller for young readers.

In Sherwin’s debut middle-grade novel, a young boy and his sister do battle with a band of treasure hunters in the Florida Keys.

During their summer vacation in the Florida Keys, 11-year-old Chad Hatcher and his sensible older sister, Gene, venture out on their own for the first time to a reef off of Cudjoe Key. While Gene is concerned about a looming storm cloud, Chad is busy snapping photos of a nearby boat. Onboard, suspicious-looking looters appear to be hauling up pieces of treasure from the water. Are these scruffy men stealing gold medallions and pirates’ booty from an ancient Spanish shipwreck below or is Chad’s imagination in overdrive? Sherwin’s characters will be easily identifiable yet relatable to young-adult readers: Gene is the reluctant, responsible sidekick dragged into hero Chad’s noble but dangerous quest. The tropical setting is menacing, as killer storms rage overhead and natural elements hover with deadly threats. Nonstop action sequences build tension and keep readers engaged in a plot with a heady pace. Although Chad is a formidable hero and his desire to defend the protected reef is admirable, his characterization could benefit from more depth. When his overzealous actions nearly cost him and Gene their lives, readers might find Chad more believable if he expressed a measure of vulnerability amid the dire circumstances—or at least some self-awareness that his actions were reckless. Overall, though, the sunken-treasure story line blends well with the assortment of maritime facts in this terrific tall tale.

A perfect summer thriller for young readers.

Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2011

ISBN: 978-1462059584

Page Count: 152

Publisher: iUniverse

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2012

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DON'T LET HIM IN

Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.

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Following her father’s sudden death, Aisling Swann is secretly horrified when her mother begins to date again—and she quickly becomes suspicious of this new flame.

Four years ago: A mysterious male narrator reflects upon his relationship with his wife—along with a few pointed comments about how she is aging. It quickly becomes apparent that this self-proclaimed “very pleasant” man is not who he seems; he already has a girlfriend on the side, and he’s playing both women with sob stories about his job and his traumatic past while taking money from them. Even as they get more and more frustrated with his lack of communication during ever-lengthening absences, he still gives them what they want: “a top-notch husband.” In the present day, Ash Swann; her brother, Arlo; and their mother, Nina, mourn the loss of her charismatic father, Paddy, a successful chef with a chain of lucrative restaurants. Nina receives a sympathy note from a man who claims to have worked closely with Paddy in the industry, which leads to a robust online flirtation that moves into the real world about a year after her husband’s death. Ash is living at home, mired in grief as well as her own mental health struggles, and she’s none too happy to see her mom dating—but particularly this handsome, egregiously suave Nick Radcliffe. Ash begins to notice some inconsistencies with his stories and his past, so she enlists Paddy’s ex-girlfriend Jane to help her investigate. Meanwhile, Ash’s story continues to intercut that of the mysterious man who is now married to his former girlfriend—and still up to his old tricks. Jewell’s cutting between past and present certainly allows revelations to ooze out at a slow, controlled pace; even as the reader makes obvious connections, the full picture remains obscure. Jewell has written some incredibly engaging and strong female characters, Nina, Ash, and Jane foremost among them. What would it have been like to split the narrative between them instead of giving so much voice—and thus narrative power—to the male antagonist?

Jewell is absolutely a genius at building suspense, but the “man behaving badly” plot is getting tired.

Pub Date: June 24, 2025

ISBN: 9781668033876

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025

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DEVOLUTION

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).

A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.

A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

Pub Date: June 16, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine

Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020

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