An enjoyable fantasy with a complex heroine set in an unusual time period.
Gerlach (The King’s Mechanic, 2015, etc.) turns to Africa in a tale of humans and gods set in the Stone Age.
Jumatoa “Juma” Botango wants nothing more than to win the role of chieftess in the matriarchal tribe her mother abandoned. Having reached training age, she travels with her father and two brothers to the central village to join her peers and learn from the elders. But claiming her mother’s birthright will not be easy. She immediately clashes with her cousin Kandra, the daughter of the current Chieftess Jakombe, who has led the tribe since Juma’s mother left. Juma hopes to prove her worth beyond doubt but is distracted from this goal at the welcoming ceremony, where she sees a mysterious man with bright red hair among the crowd. When the stranger causes a young man to collapse without warning, Juma realizes he must be Mubuntu, the Lord of Fire, making mischief while his sister Vanamate, the Keeper of the Water, sleeps. Juma manages to save the young man by using Vanamate’s magical tears, which she obtained while walking in the spirit realm. But the tribe’s trials are just beginning. Mubuntu has imprisoned Vanamate through his trickery, creating a massive drought. Soon Juma and her people must contend with the dual threats posed by other parched tribes in search of water and Mubuntu’s quest for power—for if he succeeds in keeping Vanamate asleep, the drought will mean an end to the girl’s tribe. Gerlach’s prose has a mythical feel as it moves effortlessly between the real and spirit realms. Especially enjoyable are the complexity of the matriarchal society and the intricacies of the world of the gods. Juma, a competent and complicated protagonist, has confidence in her abilities without dismissing the wisdom of her peers and elders, and the romance Gerlach crafts reflects the care and consideration with which Juma approaches all aspects of her life. Though there are moments of awkwardly modern phrasing (“Kandra had a breakdown” and “[He] jumped Chunte”), these rarely detract from an engaging plot.
An enjoyable fantasy with a complex heroine set in an unusual time period.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-3-9568104-9-7
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Independent Bookworm
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2016
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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