A gruesome slasher story that mainly rests on genre tropes rather than using them to create fully developed characters and...
A killer haunts a Texas town full of mysteries in this debut novel.
A string of brutal attacks rocks the isolated community of Glen Haven. Known as the Goatman, thanks to his animal skull mask, the murderer leaves a single survivor of each assault—a group of women who have banded together into a club. These traumatized yet resilient women want revenge and capture the killer during the book’s first chapter. They must now decide whether to turn the Goatman over to the proper authorities or administer their own justice. Meanwhile, FBI Special Agent Christoph Edison arrives in town to help Texas Ranger Emmitt Maverick investigate the homicides. The fastidious and intelligent Edison learns that Glen Haven has a history of enigmatic happenings, culminating in a surreal vision of a spectral figure called “Mr. Nobody” at a rural crime scene. The work also tells each survivor’s story in sequences that will be familiar to horror aficionados. Cat Bachman was making a documentary about a witchcraft-tinged murder (her tale is told through found footage watched by Edison). Anne survived a college camping trip loaded with sex and booze; Autumn endured a break-in in the middle of a boathouse party full of teenage relationship drama. Breakfield’s premise is intriguing, but each character’s thread is ultimately swamped by genre references. Teen slasher flicks, The Blair Witch Project, and Twin Peaks are all lovingly imitated, but overall the novel seems content to repeat familiar beats rather than use homages to further build its own story. The players—almost all incredibly good-looking—are not defined much past their “types,” which can render their dialogue awkward and flat. The author’s more original ideas—whether an overarching plot device such as a Survivor’s Club or a simple striking image like an eerie wall of stones with a breathing mouth—are undoubtedly promising. Hopefully, Breakfield will trust his creative instincts in his next outing.
A gruesome slasher story that mainly rests on genre tropes rather than using them to create fully developed characters and scenarios.Pub Date: July 16, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-92168-5
Page Count: 388
Publisher: Bifrost Universe
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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