A gem of a tale about facing death: wise, wry, and moving.
In this short book for readers ages 12 and up, a masked figure in black comes to prepare a girl for her upcoming death.
As this fablelike tale begins, a mysterious entity appears one night in the bedroom of Tabitha Wilkinson. Though sweet and pretty, Tabitha looks ill and is also nearly hairless but for a few strands and a little fuzz. As for the black-clad figure, she’s about Tabitha’s size, but her face “strongly resembled a mask, complete with red string tied around the back,” with a crack on it like a contusion. The figure explains that she’s here to inform Tabitha of her impending death and serve as her guide. Tabitha takes this news well, asking many curious questions about the guide and her work. Back in her realm until she returns for Tabitha, the guide begins pondering the questions she couldn’t answer when the sick girl asked them: her name and how she died. She talks to other guides, who do remember these things about themselves, and then to Death himself, where she learns how guides are chosen. When it’s time to collect Tabitha, the guide learns the secret of her name, how she died, and why she’s the girl’s escort, redeeming the tragedy of her own death. Parker (Autonomously Yours, 2015) has a wonderful ear for tone in this lovely, spooky tale. A young girl’s death could easily become subject to the cheap macabre or cheaper sentimentalizing, but Tabitha is more robust than that. When the guide advises keeping the visit secret, lest loved ones be caused unnecessary distress, Tabitha replies: “Cause them distress? I’m the one who’s perishing.” She’s also intelligent, discovering through research that the guide can be called a psychopomp: “ ‘And my question to you is which do you prefer? Psycho or Pomp?’ said Tabitha, and she sweetly laughed, then not quite so sweetly wheezed.” That’s amusing, raw, and poignant in perfect balance. Finally, the author brings out the connection between girl and guide in a way that makes beautiful sense. One could only wish for more illustrations (beyond the cover) to capture Parker’s well-described images.
A gem of a tale about facing death: wise, wry, and moving.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4841-6382-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.
A man walks out of a bar and his life becomes a kaleidoscope of altered states in this science-fiction thriller.
Crouch opens on a family in a warm, resonant domestic moment with three well-developed characters. At home in Chicago’s Logan Square, Jason Dessen dices an onion while his wife, Daniela, sips wine and chats on the phone. Their son, Charlie, an appealing 15-year-old, sketches on a pad. Still, an undertone of regret hovers over the couple, a preoccupation with roads not taken, a theme the book will literally explore, in multifarious ways. To start, both Jason and Daniela abandoned careers that might have soared, Jason as a physicist, Daniela as an artist. When Charlie was born, he suffered a major illness. Jason was forced to abandon promising research to teach undergraduates at a small college. Daniela turned from having gallery shows to teaching private art lessons to middle school students. On this bracing October evening, Jason visits a local bar to pay homage to Ryan Holder, a former college roommate who just received a major award for his work in neuroscience, an honor that rankles Jason, who, Ryan says, gave up on his career. Smarting from the comment, Jason suffers “a sucker punch” as he heads home that leaves him “standing on the precipice.” From behind Jason, a man with a “ghost white” face, “red, pursed lips," and "horrifying eyes” points a gun at Jason and forces him to drive an SUV, following preset navigational directions. At their destination, the abductor forces Jason to strip naked, beats him, then leads him into a vast, abandoned power plant. Here, Jason meets men and women who insist they want to help him. Attempting to escape, Jason opens a door that leads him into a series of dark, strange, yet eerily familiar encounters that sometimes strain credibility, especially in the tale's final moments.
Suspenseful, frightening, and sometimes poignant—provided the reader has a generously willing suspension of disbelief.Pub Date: July 26, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-90422-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
PROFILES
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
