While this fantasy adventure tale would benefit from more characterization and tension, it still delivers a fun read.
A scrappy group attempts to overthrow an evil dream world ruler in this debut novel.
Melvin and Lorraine, two “sensible” and levelheaded teens, adjust quickly when they fall asleep in their beds and awaken in a white room guarded by two quarrelsome giants. The giants explain that they are in Limbo, the dimension in which dreams are created. Only Dream Ambassadors can summon individuals from the physical world, and they seem to have been called by Mr. Good, an Ambassador who produces sweet dreams and has recently lost his home, the Palace of Somnium, to the nightmare-generating Vile. Lorraine and Melvin set off to aid Mr. Good but are captured by Vile and his meek, riddle-obsessed minion Terrence. The two teens escape, thanks to the negligence of Vile’s grunting “muscular guards,” and eventually encounter Mr. Good, the Wizard Mugwump (who, due to a verbal tic, regularly says “salmon” in place of the word he means), and other summoned humans and denizens of Limbo who hope to restore Mr. Good to his rightful home. They have limited time to act: Vile, tormented by a mysterious voice in his head, plans a master nightmare performance that will plummet every human into endless bad dreams. Tranter begins on a definitively zany note and never backs down, at times costing characterization and stakes. Vile and his pack seem far too humorously incompetent to present serious danger, and Lorraine and Melvin remain undeveloped despite their central status. But many of the side characters are wonderful to get to know, such as Keith, a Boy Scout whose eager offers to help are never as desired as he hopes, and Vince, an Elvis-obsessed human who’s been trapped in Limbo for epochs. Wacky back-and-forths between characters sometimes go on far too long, and not all of the wall-to-wall gags and slapstick land, but amusing moments can certainly be found (as when Vile, constantly mixing up his dream actors, simply calls them all “Norman”).
While this fantasy adventure tale would benefit from more characterization and tension, it still delivers a fun read.Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5246-3771-2
Page Count: 412
Publisher: AuthorHouseUK
Review Posted Online: May 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Aspiring filmmaker/first-novelist Chbosky adds an upbeat ending to a tale of teenaged angst—the right combination of realism and uplift to allow it on high school reading lists, though some might object to the sexuality, drinking, and dope-smoking. More sophisticated readers might object to the rip-off of Salinger, though Chbosky pays homage by having his protagonist read Catcher in the Rye. Like Holden, Charlie oozes sincerity, rails against celebrity phoniness, and feels an extraliterary bond with his favorite writers (Harper Lee, Fitzgerald, Kerouac, Ayn Rand, etc.). But Charlie’s no rich kid: the third child in a middle-class family, he attends public school in western Pennsylvania, has an older brother who plays football at Penn State, and an older sister who worries about boys a lot. An epistolary novel addressed to an anonymous “friend,” Charlie’s letters cover his first year in high school, a time haunted by the recent suicide of his best friend. Always quick to shed tears, Charlie also feels guilty about the death of his Aunt Helen, a troubled woman who lived with Charlie’s family at the time of her fatal car wreck. Though he begins as a friendless observer, Charlie is soon pals with seniors Patrick and Sam (for Samantha), stepsiblings who include Charlie in their circle, where he smokes pot for the first time, drops acid, and falls madly in love with the inaccessible Sam. His first relationship ends miserably because Charlie remains compulsively honest, though he proves a loyal friend (to Patrick when he’s gay-bashed) and brother (when his sister needs an abortion). Depressed when all his friends prepare for college, Charlie has a catatonic breakdown, which resolves itself neatly and reveals a long-repressed truth about Aunt Helen. A plain-written narrative suggesting that passivity, and thinking too much, lead to confusion and anxiety. Perhaps the folks at (co-publisher) MTV see the synergy here with Daria or any number of videos by the sensitive singer-songwriters they feature.
Pub Date: Feb. 4, 1999
ISBN: 0-671-02734-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: MTV Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
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