LOSING GEMMA

Name: LOSING GEMMA
Author: Katy Gardner
ISBN: 1-57322-933-4

by Katy Gardner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 23, 2002

A tragic thriller about curdled friendships and the dangerous thrills of the unknown, saddled with an ending that readers...

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Two young Brits go backpacking in India, but only one comes back.

With all the arrogance and lack of planning that makes life in your early 20s so messy, a pair of British girls who have been friends since very early childhood—Gemma and Esther—arrive in India for a backpacking trip, circa 1989. Esther’s guilty, doomed narration makes it very clear that this trip will not end well for Gemma, and it’s mostly Esther’s fault. Gemma seems at first an unfortunate choice for a traveling companion, especially in India, as she develops heat rash, pines constantly for air-conditioning, and seems to have a passive-aggressive reaction to just about everything Esther does or says. But soon it becomes clear that Esther is almost more the problem. Arrogantly convinced of her own beauty, intellect, and strong feminist backbone, she obviously treats Gemma as her less-attractive and not-so-bright sidekick, a fact that even Esther starts to appreciate: “I was young and pretty and British and I suppose I thought I could behave exactly as I pleased.” Not to mention the fact that back home, Esther has been carrying on with the guy Gemma has a crush on and hasn’t told her yet. The trip itself is not much fun, as the girls spend most of their time fighting. Adding a hint of malevolence to the story is the arrival of full-time backpacker Coral, who brings the pair their money belt that Gemma had let fall from her bag. Esther cares not a bit for this New Age interloper, but Gemma gloms on to her immediately, regardless of her creepy intentions. The strange trio find themselves at a shrine in the jungle, and Coral becomes excited over the tradition of self-immolation—a combination that foretells a not-so-happy ending. First-time novelist Gardner spins a strong, atmospheric story that unfortunately falls too often into horror cliché. But her rendition of Gemma and Esther’s friendship will reverberate with many young female readers who might appreciate a more relationship-centered spin on the backpackers-gone-astray trope of Alex Garland’s The Beach.

A tragic thriller about curdled friendships and the dangerous thrills of the unknown, saddled with an ending that readers will see coming about 40 pages away.

Pub Date: April 23, 2002

ISBN: 1-57322-933-4

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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CATCH-22

by Joseph Heller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 10, 1961

Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.

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Catch-22 is an unusual, wildly inventive comic novel about World War II, and its publishers are planning considerable publicity for it.

Set on the tiny island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean Sea, the novel is devoted to a long series of impossible, illogical adventures engaged in by the members of the 256th bombing squadron, an unlikely combat group whose fanatical commander, Colonel Cathcart, keeps increasing the men's quota of missions until they reach the ridiculous figure of 80. The book's central character is Captain Yossarian, the squadron's lead bombardier, who is surrounded at all times by the ironic and incomprehensible and who directs all his energies towards evading his odd role in the war. His companions are an even more peculiar lot: Lieutenant Scheisskopf, who loved to win parades; Major Major Major, the victim of a life-long series of practical jokes, beginning with his name; the mess officer, Milo Minderbinder, who built a food syndicate into an international cartel; and Major de Coverley whose mission in life was to rent apartments for the officers and enlisted men during their rest leaves. Eventually, after Cathcart has exterminated nearly all of Yossarian's buddies through the suicidal missions, Yossarian decides to desert — and he succeeds.

Catch-22 is also concerned with some of war's horrors and atrocities, and it is at times painfully grim.