A darkly comic, compelling, and critical tale about family and the never-ending grind.
In this debut satire, a newly promoted demon struggles to possess an innocent girl on Earth and fulfill a prophecy.
Karen Floyd’s job is in Hell. She works at the Nakara Corporation, which provides internet, cable, and cellphones for Hell’s lost souls. But she gets a welcome promotion when her “sick box” pops up in the earthly realm. This box filled with spiritual items was the last thing Karen saw before dying. Now, thanks to a garage sale, the box resides with the Matthews family and offers a direct route from Hell to Earth. Karen’s new project is possessing the body of 5-year-old Mallory, which, as it happens, is the start of a prophecy foretold years before the protagonist reached Hell. She fights to control her unpredictable travels between realms; her slowly materializing form on Earth; and Mallory herself. But when someone capable of exorcisms enters the Matthews family’s circle, the little girl’s bizarre behavior (for example, blaming things on her invisible friend, Karen) may ultimately send the demon back to Hell as a failure. Fries’ entertainingly flippant tone makes Hell comparable to Earth. But differences are hard to miss, as Hell’s average denizen has horns and a “long red swishing tail” and faces perpetual dangers, like random zombie hordes. This engaging story fuses gory moments with plentiful humor, from lowbrow (flatulence, human or otherwise) to just plain silly (the demonic greeting of “Hell low”). At the same time, Fries smartly lampoons women’s treatment in the workplace; a co-worker patronizingly calls Karen “baby” and “your hot self,” and it’s clear that sexual harassment claims never move beyond the paperwork. As her offbeat adventure continues, Karen earns sympathy, often seeing her sister, Alice, in young Mallory. Karen is also somewhat mysterious since readers initially don’t know much about her, most notably what she did on Earth that fast-tracked her to Hell.
A darkly comic, compelling, and critical tale about family and the never-ending grind.Pub Date: Dec. 31, 2021
ISBN: 9798793854405
Page Count: 348
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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