A tale of twins—one dead, one alive—becomes an ineffective hybrid: part ghost story, part multiple-personality yarn, part romance. When goody-goody Janine, 16, cuts school to go for a ride with budding boyfriend Scott, both of them are critically injured when another driver smashes into their car. Janine has a near-death experience in which her mischievous twin, Lenore, who drowned at age four, moves into Janine’s body to sample the life she’s missed. It’s a promising start—is Lenore a real spirit presence, or just a manifestation of Janine’s darker side? Revelations—that it was Janine who died when they were four, and that Lenore took Janine’s name and became a compulsively “good” girl in the wake of the accident—won’t surprise mystery fans (or viewers of spidery Bette Davis films). The real disappointment is the agelessness of the dead twin, whose sexual appetites and use of contemporary slang place her as a teenager, but who can also be jarringly childlike. An astute therapist grounds the story; so does the twins’ mother, who knows the truth but believes the surviving twin must come to it on her own. The ending—Janine/Lenore accepts that she is a blend of two people, good and bad—is a valiant attempt to bring many ideas together, but the plotting overwhelms Littke (Blue Skye, 1991, etc.); wavering between full-blown grotesque and moments of deep feeling, her story gets lost in the middle. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-8050-5729-3
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Combine rock music, time travel and a ghost story with teen friendship, romance and parental discord, and chances are it will catch the interest of young readers. In this case, the addition of strong, clear, fast-moving writing, clever plotting and tantalizing mysteries add up to a super-fun read. Sixteen-year old Liam starts his own band, and learns that his parents were in a band with a boy, also named Liam, who had died. When Liam’s skull is crushed during his performance in a battle of the bands, he travels back in time, as a ghost, to try to stop the boy’s death. There, as he tries to cope with the difficulties of being a ghost, he learns some secrets about his parents, especially through seeing them as teenagers his own age. Entertaining, thoughtful and highly intriguing, this British import hits the top of the charts. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-8027-8995-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
Jacques turns his storytelling talents from the world of animal fantasy to the sphere of human and animal monsters in this collection of six weird tales. The stories incorporate a variety of horror and occult tropes and/or mythological characters, e.g., conjuring gone wrong in “The Ribbajack,” a malevolent ghost in “A Smile and a Wave,” naiads in “The All Ireland Champion and the Nye Add,” a paralyzing visit from an ancient Greek in Huma D’Este, and werewolves in “Rosie’s Pet.” Sly humor and suspenseful plotting will keep readers’ interest engaged. Short poems introduce each story and an omniscient narrator leads the reader adeptly to the (mostly) surprise endings. Jacques’s leisurely approach to narrative works better at a longer length when he uses fewer literary shortcuts (the stereotype British colonial gent, the vaudeville Irish peasant), while his rendering of dialect jars less in his animal fantasies. Lovers of the Redwall and Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series will want to read these stories, which will appeal most strongly to Jacques’s fans. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-399-24220-1
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2004
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