Not the best installment of the impressive trilogy, but an intriguing conclusion nonetheless.
The hardscrabble Allan family has faced nearly every threat their rough, self-sufficient pioneer life in Big Sur country has to offer, but it’s mankind that finally presents a challenge the family may not be able to overcome.
As in all the novels of Ross’ trilogy, Big Sur country is an entity unto itself. The land shaped all three generations of the Allans; it’s what defines them. But now the government is blasting a road through the pristine wild country Zande Allan loves, and the stubborn family patriarch is determined to stop it. His grandson and namesake, Zan, sees the road differently—it’s progress and opportunity, and he wants to be a part of its creation. When Zan defies his headstrong grandfather, Zande cuts him out of the family, and Zan begins working on the road crew, blasting away the land he’s always loved to allow more people to discover it. But after his irresponsible cousin, Tilli, kills the man who spurned her, Zan realizes he has to save the family’s reputation by taking the blame for the murder, which lands him in prison. Seven years later, he returns to a world that has moved on without him and makes no place for an ex-con—and the woman he loves is out of his reach because of it. Like all the Allans in Ross’ trilogy, Zan is a compelling character: strong-minded, honorable, hardworking. And like all the Allans, it’s his own unbending adherence to his core values that contributes to his undoing. In Zan’s case, it’s family pride that convinces him to save the honor of a cousin who doesn’t deserve his sacrifice; and later, stubborn pride—and fear—keep him from admitting his love for Lara Ramirez, the girl raised by his beloved grandmother. Co-written by Koeppel 50 years after Ross’ death, this installment doesn’t feel quite as smooth or authentic as the other two titles in the series. But like the others, it’s a fascinating character study, a realistic portrait of one of America’s final frontiers and a book that’s hard to put down.
Not the best installment of the impressive trilogy, but an intriguing conclusion nonetheless.Pub Date: April 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-467950-08-4
Page Count: 308
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.
In 16th-century Madrid, a crypto-Jew with a talent for casting spells tries to steer clear of the Inquisition.
Luzia Cotado, a scullion and an orphan, has secrets to keep: “It was a game she and her mother had played, saying one thing and thinking another, the bits and pieces of Hebrew handed down like chipped plates.” Also handed down are “refranes”—proverbs—in “not quite Spanish, just as Luzia was not quite Spanish.” When Luzia sings the refranes, they take on power. “Aboltar cazal, aboltar mazal” (“A change of scene, a change of fortune”) can mend a torn gown or turn burnt bread into a perfect loaf; “Quien no risica, no rosica” (“Whoever doesn’t laugh, doesn’t bloom”) can summon a riot of foliage in the depths of winter. The Inquisition hangs over the story like Chekhov’s famous gun on the wall. When Luzia’s employer catches her using magic, the ambitions of both mistress and servant catapult her into fame and danger. A new, even more ambitious patron instructs his supernatural servant, Guillén Santángel, to train Luzia for a magical contest. Santángel, not Luzia, is the familiar of the title; he has been tricked into trading his freedom and luck to his master’s family in exchange for something he no longer craves but can’t give up. The novel comes up against an issue common in fantasy fiction: Why don’t the characters just use their magic to solve all their problems? Bardugo has clearly given it some thought, but her solutions aren’t quite convincing, especially toward the end of the book. These small faults would be harder to forgive if she weren’t such a beautiful writer. Part fairy tale, part political thriller, part romance, the novel unfolds like a winter tree bursting into unnatural bloom in response to one of Luzia’s refranes, as she and Santángel learn about power, trust, betrayal, and love.
Lush, gorgeous, precise language and propulsive plotting sweep readers into a story as intelligent as it is atmospheric.Pub Date: April 9, 2024
ISBN: 9781250884251
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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