In spare, powerful prose, set in northern Atlantic lands, Sedgwick tells a coming-of-age story steeped in mystery and danger. Fifteen-year-old Sigurd lives with his tribe, the Storn, in an isolated coastal village. Four years earlier, an expedition hunting wolves had brought back a girl known as Mouse, apparently raised by wolves, and now adopted into Sig’s family. Despite Mouse’s reticence and three years difference in age, the two are close friends. Mouse remains an outsider to other villagers, in part because of her magical power to cast herself into the minds of animals. One day when the two are searching for sea cabbage to make up for the poor fishing that has plagued the village for years, they find a mysterious box. Soon a vicious stranger appears looking for the box, after which the village’s relatively tranquility disappears with the coming of the Dark Horse, a host of warlike horsemen. The rush of events and onslaught of danger push Sig into manhood before his time as he takes on leadership of the Storn. At the same time, the Dark Horse prompts memories in Mouse that lead to a change of character and acts of betrayal that are inadequately foreshadowed and feel abrupt. Sig’s first-person narrative, which include flashbacks that give background, alternate with short chapters of present-day action, with each chapter headed by a small, boxed illustration. Using short, strong words appropriate to the Nordic setting, Sedgwick (Witch Hill, not reviewed, etc.) crafts an effective tale that, despite the unconvincing transformation of Mouse, will draw readers in and keep them entranced. (Fiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-73054-3
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2002
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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