by Mario Barrera ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 2014
A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”
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A picaresque fantasy focuses on a California cat who becomes human.
Forty-year-old Sherman Oaks resident Jennie Livingston’s troubles begin at the outset of Barrera’s fiction debut when she decides to visit trendy shaman-to-the-stars Carlos and hire him to guide her through a vision quest (he’s done this often, including a couple of times for Charlie Sheen). Like many pet owners who live alone, Jennie first discusses the whole matter with her cat, a purebred Chartreux named Antoinette, who, as usual with her species, is both haughty and indifferent to the scheme. But then Carlos’ supernatural efforts result in Antoinette becoming a pretty young human named Kitty, who has a French accent, a fan-crush on Scarlett O’Hara, and a penchant for getting involved with what “humans spend all their time thinking about” (readers are informed that it isn’t food). Kitty is subtle and manipulative—perfectly, if inadvertently, described when one character understatedly says cats are “pretty good at figuring out how to get what they want.” What Kitty wants is to squash Jennie’s new romance with Hollywood screenwriter Casey Chandler and match her instead with Carlos himself, but these plans get complicated when yet more of the shaman’s magic turns Casey’s Old English Sheepdog Shep into a sexy young Englishman who immediately fascinates Kitty. Then Jennie’s ex-boyfriend Mickey Souris kidnaps Kitty with the plan of changing her back into a cat and using her as the basis of a lucrative breeding operation, forcing the tale’s heroes to band together in an attempt to save her. Barrera invests all of this silliness with both a winningly light touch and an undercurrent of sexual sizzle that never feels forced (the novel’s full-color photos representing its various cast members add a playful touch). His funny and racy plot is target-rich with the zanier aspects of Hollywood subculture (Jennie tells Carlos that her “vision animal turned out to be an old tortoise named Amy. I felt like Alice in Wonderland talking to her”). But his satire is never sharp enough to break the spell of his humor. Although his characters may talk about the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen, they remain comfortably one-dimensional.
A lighthearted sexual satire that gives a whole new meaning to the words “cat lover” and “dog lover.”Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4575-3251-1
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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