Derivative, good-natured fun.
In this modern riff on King Arthur, Arthur is basically Iron Man—a rich, immature (but inherently good) superhero flying around in a metal suit.
After finding herself caught in the crossfire after a strange series of visions, teenage Elaine is whisked from her ordinary, humdrum suburban family life to Keep Tower, an 85-story Manhattan skyscraper owned by Arthur Keep, aka superhero Pendragon. In this slightly alternate reality, superheroes are common, but Arthur and his tech genius wife, Ginny, are still big names; it turns out Arthur has a secret connection to Elaine and is the subject of many of her visions. What follows is in many ways an homage to superhero and ’80s movies: There’s a training montage, absurd but fun technology (particularly the flying robot knights), villainy, a possibly wicked international agency, and of course the requisite romance with a perfect hottie—who works for the dubious agency. The introspection is usually exposition, and the King Arthur references are mostly window dressing, but superheroics plus teen drama are beloved by plenty of readers; as a bonus, this is the first in a forthcoming series. Physical descriptions are vague, allowing readers to project their own imaginations onto characters’ appearances.
Derivative, good-natured fun. (Fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-944821-60-9
Page Count: 328
Publisher: CBAY
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
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
PERSPECTIVES
In ten short stories, Soto (Buried Onions, 1997, etc.) presents a kaleidoscope of Mexican-American adolescents and the bullies they confront—bullies ranging from tough, menacing teens to life’s unavoidable truths. The stories are as diverse as the characters, from cat-fighting girls to insecure boys. Among the best: “Your Turn, Norma,” a heartbreaking account of a persecuted girl and her struggle to protect the doll she is charged with carrying for a week as part of a class assignment; “Born Worker,” which juxtaposes a hard-working, salt-of-the-earth boy with his scheming, lazy cousin; and “Mother’s Clothes” in which a girl copes with grief by hunting out and taking back her dead mother’s clothing, dispensed to thrift shops by her father. All of the stories exhibit dazzling imagery and Soto’s intense understanding of his subjects. He deftly brings to light relationships and their complications among family, peers, and elders in a well-crafted collection that’s lively, absorbing, and meaningful. (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: May 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-15-201658-9
Page Count: 157
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1998
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