A readable first installment, but future books will need stronger plotlines to pull readers through.
Davis (The Devil Wants Finn Carey’s Soul, 2011, etc.) returns with a historical fantasy of witches and infernal spirits in Colonial Massachusetts, the first in a projected trilogy.
In 1736 Boston, authorities continue to hunt for witches—even though Salem was destroyed decades ago. Some people argue that Gov. William Whitelocke is holding on to such tyrannical methods in order to maintain his own power, and young Cate Allen and her family get caught up in a rebellion against him. Eventually, the situation forces Cate to unlock her own witchy powers. Meanwhile, the governor’s dissolute son, Grayson, is thrust into a position of authority when his dutiful brother, John, is assassinated. With the help of his brother’s military protégé, Henry Rigsdale, and the appointed magical practitioner of Massachusetts Colony, Grayson tries to discover the truth about a Whitelock family curse, and what really happened to the witches of Salem. Meanwhile, the dark sorcerer August Swaine attempts to advance the science of magic, not knowing what types of demons he might be summoning. Davis’ novel intriguingly sets classic fantasy tropes in a historical setting that readers don’t see too often, which results in an enticing blend of familiar concepts in unfamiliar surroundings. Unfortunately, the book’s main problem is one shared by many other first volumes in trilogies: It primarily provides a lot of setup for later installments, spread between the different characters, as Swaine gets in over his head, Cate realizes that she must take up the mantle of a revolutionary, and Grayson sets his sights on something higher than drink. Davis writes some entertaining action scenes, and gets points for giving his characters some reasonable dimension (so that the admirable military man, for example, also has a jealous side). Still, when mentor characters talk about the danger of the “shadowrise,” readers may expect it to play a bigger role in this novel.
A readable first installment, but future books will need stronger plotlines to pull readers through.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-0983688730
Page Count: 436
Publisher: Night Blue Woods Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Great for a middle- or high-school audience looking for some fun.
Comedy and suspense dominate this imaginative twist on the Dracula legend.
Harnissey, Dracula’s vampire nephew, and his companion, the ancient spider Morleaux, arrive at the old homestead for a visit when Dracula leaves for London. Harnissey, innocent, well-meaning and constantly bumbling, is attacked by the vampire sisters in residence, who intend to take over the castle while the Master is away. He and his intelligent spider sidekick eventually form an alliance with Dracula’s undead butler, a nicely drawn character always surrounded by a halo of buzzing flies, and a kingly, sinister cat, to do battle against a centuries-old vampire sorceress who’s arrived holding a grudge, along with her skeleton army. Bayne has a flair for droll comedy. His monstrous characters stand out clearly and distinctly as individuals, and the author’s clever focus on the other side of Bram Stoker’s novel helps fill out the story. The humorous undead protagonists, who are afraid of ghosts, add plenty of flavor to the story, as does the author’s incorporation of historical detail. The only flaw is Bayne’s tendency toward too-flippant dialogue, which is clearly designed to appeal to adolescents, but is inconsistent with the more sophisticated style used in the narration. Still, this is an entertaining romp that displays originality and inventiveness.
Great for a middle- or high-school audience looking for some fun. (Fiction. YA)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2006
ISBN: 0-595-40242-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Envisioning a nightmarish future in which children deemed small or otherwise defective are worked to death breaking rocks, and the constant rain is so acid it raises blisters, Rapp (Buffalo Tree, 1997) crafts another lurid shocker. Learning that the coffin maker who has housed her is about to sell her off, 11-year-old Whensday, also known as “33” for the tattoo on her arm, sneaks away. Cataloging the disease, excrement, blood, vomit, mutations, slime, and general filth with matter-of-fact bluntness, she takes temporary shelter from the rain with Honeycut, a huge, dimwitted teenager; tries to escape with another fugitive who dies of ebola-like Blackfrost; is raped by an officer of the brutal local militia; and sees Honeycut stoned to death for killing the man. Whensday tells her tale in a colorful idiolect, mixing dreams and scatological exchanges with Oakley, a tough-talking younger friend. Certain she’s about to die since she can’t stop vomiting, Whensday is rescued by a hidden community of women who clean her up and tell her she’s pregnant—a happy ending, under the circumstances. Often gripping, sometimes blackly funny in a squalid way, this will remind readers of Russell Hoban’s Ridley Walker (1980) and other tales of post-apocalyptic devastation. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1999
ISBN: 1-886910-42-1
Page Count: 250
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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