An absorbing, suspenseful tale of man versus his bestial nature; entertaining but not for the squeamish.
A debut thriller, set in the California wilderness, follows an ambitious TV reporter.
Rebecca January Coulter is an attractive actress with a minor sex scandal in her past, and she hasn’t been shy about using her physical assets to advance her career. She works in Hollywood as a reporter on a reality TV show, chasing weird or offbeat stories for their entertainment potential rather than their news value. Her latest assignment is to check out tales of “wild men” living in the Ventana Wilderness of Los Padres National Forest, near Big Sur. Her preliminary investigation yields multiple accounts of a “humanoid beast” roaming the woods and harassing campers, complete with eyewitness accounts and grainy video. The possibility of a sensational encounter with a Bigfoot-like creature is enough to get January assigned to flesh out the story into a full on-air segment. She heads into the wilderness with a backpack and four technicians lugging sophisticated sound and video equipment in hopes of capturing a glimpse of the “wild men.” She and her crew get more than they bargained for when they become embroiled in a deadly contest with Robert Bruckner, a desperate criminal who’s submerged himself into the forest and evolved into a heartless predator bent on survival at any cost. In this diverting novel, Wise has crafted a page-turner that explores what can happen when a toxic combination of bad luck, abandonment, and a rash act of extreme violence strips away the veneer of civilization from a man. The engrossing book is divided into three parts, with January narrating her thoughts and experiences in the first and third sections and a third-person account of fugitive Bruckner’s story sandwiched in between. Though the pacing is a bit uneven and the violence depicted is often gruesome, the characterization is vivid, with January especially coming to life on the page. But the abrupt ending leaves the reader unsatisfied, with a lot of questions hanging.
An absorbing, suspenseful tale of man versus his bestial nature; entertaining but not for the squeamish.Pub Date: March 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4834-6592-0
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.
Following a vampire across more than 200 years, this novel considers “whether this world and life in it is a kindness or an unkindness, a blessing or a curse.”
At the age of 10, Anna faces illness and death daily as an epidemic sweeps through her town. After the deaths of her father and brother, and when she's at her sickest, her grandfather arrives. Just as she’s about to succumb to the illness that killed her whole family, he transforms her into a vampire like himself. When she asks him why he did it, he replies: “This world, my dear child, all of it, right to the very end if there is to be an end, is a gift. But it’s a gift few are strong enough to receive. I made a judgment that you might be among those strong few, that you might be better served on this side of things than the other. I thought you might find some use for the world, and it for you.” The years that follow are difficult and often wrought with loss for Anna. She lives many lives over the centuries and eventually takes on the name Collette LaSange, opening a French preschool in Millstream Hollow, New York. Chapters alternate between Anna’s life beginning in the 1830s and her current life in 1984 as Collette. Notable points of tension arise when Collette tries unsuccessfully to sate her hunger, which is becoming increasingly unbearable, and as her interest in the artistic growth of a student named Leo deepens. Through decadently vivid prose—which could have been streamlined at times—this hefty novel meditates on major themes such as life, love, and death with exceptional acumen. The final questions in the book—“How presumptuous is the gift of life? What arrogance is implicit in the act of love that calls another into existence?”—serve as an anchor to meditations on these themes found throughout.
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781250856760
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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