A book full of beautifully written prose that, ultimately, includes a poorly executed resolution.
One year after surviving a heart transplant, Linnea should be celebrating; instead, she is terrified.
On the first anniversary of Linnea’s transplant surgery, she should be celebrating her recovery. Instead, she can’t help but feel that her donor wants her heart back—and that her body is becoming less and less her own. Meanwhile, across town, Maxine struggles to keep her family together in the aftermath of her sister Harper’s death. The one person Maxine thinks she can confide in is her boyfriend, Chris, who, after losing his little brother, seems to be the only one who understands what Maxine is going through. In the first two acts of the novel, the combination of debut author DiStefano’s lyrical prose and effortlessly nuanced characters makes for a gripping and heart-wrenching read. Unfortunately, the final act of the book trades skillful character development for sensationalized scenes of violence and sexual assault (some of which may be triggering to survivors), focusing on a villain whose lack of a defined backstory makes him feel more like a caricature than a real person. Furthermore, the author’s attempts to include diversity do not necessarily succeed; while there are some secondary characters of color, the primary characters are white, and the only one identified as black is Florabelle, a mystical truth teller who embodies the “Magical Negro” trope.
A book full of beautifully written prose that, ultimately, includes a poorly executed resolution. (Fiction. 17-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-7324141-0-5
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Elephant Rock Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
Skippable in the extreme.
All the kids want out of Oleander, Kan.; few will make it alive.
The small, isolated town has horrors in its past. The citizens begin a slow return to the surface on “the day of the killing,” when five people with little in common go on a killing spree, and then four of them kill themselves. Teenager Cass, the only surviving murderer, is quickly institutionalized. Just as the town creeps back toward normalcy, an EF5 tornado whips through and destroys a quarter of the buildings and a nearby secret research facility. The U.S. government places the town under quarantine, with complete autonomy within it, and the citizens all begin to act out their worst impulses. As the adults slip into insanity and grab for power (when not killing each other), a small band of teens—gay footballer West, daughter of meth dealers Jule and struggling street-preacher’s kid Daniel—fights to survive. When Cass returns to reveal the truth of their situation, they fight to escape. Wasserman’s horror/science-fiction blend is ultraviolent in places, ludicrous in others and snooze-inducing in still others. It’s a mess of an attempt at Stephen King–style small-town horror, undermined by an unrealistic and basically uninteresting portrayal of the classic breakdown of civilization amid a too-large cast.
Skippable in the extreme. (Horror. 17 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-375-86877-1
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 25, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A good crossover thriller for conspiracy-theory lovers
A university student, a vet and a conspiracy theorist unravel a dangerous government plot in a near-future England.
In this dystopian London, the endless War for Freedom has led to a gradual erosion of civil rights, with heavily armed police officers and a Military in Schools Scheme that has army officers teaching geography via shoot-’em-up computer games. Amina is on work experience, a junior, coffee-fetching flunky hoping to prove herself as a journalist. A fluffy human-interest story introduces her to Ivor, a paranoid loner, lottery winner and recently injured veteran of the war in Sinnostan (a fictional country vaguely reminiscent of Afghanistan). Amina doesn't want to believe Ivor's tales of false memories and faceless stalkers, but Chi Sandwith, a UFO-obsessed hacker, tracks her down with disturbingly convincing evidence. The trio unearths terrifying evidence of a bizarre scandal involving countless maimed soldiers. In shifting points of view, the prose spoon-feeds details of 20th- and 21st-century geopolitics to readers who lack required context. Ultimately this is an espionage thriller for older teens and adults; the protagonists' concerns (career-building, being thoroughly alone in the world, post-military PTSD) skew the book older. U.S. readers may balk at the recurring use of "oriental," which has less negative connotations in the U.K. than in the States, as well as other stereotypes and slurs sometimes (but not always) spoken by unsavory characters.
A good crossover thriller for conspiracy-theory lovers . (Science fiction. 17 & up)Pub Date: April 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4976-6579-8
Page Count: 372
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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