A seafaring adventure with all the elements of a great puzzle but the solution.
An ocean thriller brings a family clinging to lost affluence into the path of a drug warlord.
From the first page, readers know that a merciless drug warlord is involved, but the family party, on a last yachting jaunt from San Francisco to Honolulu, is caught up in in its own worries. Leonard and Claudette have been living the high life, but their daughter, Susannah, and her cousin, Martin, know that the money is gone. Deck hand Axel is eye candy but also an opportunist looking for a break. When their luxury boat, Athena’s Secret, crosses paths with the speedier Witch Grass, they find a fortune in cash, plus two dead guys: in other words, trouble. They commence a lackadaisical hunt for salvage that turns the voyage into more than a goodbye to a way of life—it could be a goodbye to life itself. Cadnum takes threatening weather, a shark, a lost dog and guns galore and turns them into a nightmare scenario. Then, unfortunately, he simply abandons the thriller formula as bad guys and demoralized family come face to face in an ending more whimper than bang. Psychological elements stemming from the relationships between those on the wrong and (supposedly) the right side of the law are introduced early on, but the author lets much of that simply fade.
A seafaring adventure with all the elements of a great puzzle but the solution. (Thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-374-36705-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: April 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
More messy than juicy; for gossip-blog devotees only.
Four spoiled daughters of African-American entertainment-industry elite engage in constant posturing, cheating and back-stabbing as they attend exclusive Hollywood High.
The story is told in four not-entirely-distinct voices, including ex–New Yorker London, tabloid queen Rich and Rich's “ex-ex-ex-years ago-ex-bff” Spencer. Heather, the most sympathetic of the bunch, supports her alcoholic mother with her own acting career and struggles with an Adderall addiction. Drama escalates practically within milliseconds: Spencer gets a neck rash from a perfume Heather's mother gave her; Spencer Maces Heather in the cafeteria in retaliation; the head of Heather's fan club joins the fight; the story goes viral within hours...and that's just the beginning. Much of the drama involves competition over boys, and although Heather sets another series of fights and PR nightmares in motion by secretly videotaping one girl cheating with another's boyfriend, she is never revealed as the source of the video. One girl ends up pregnant, musing, distressingly, “If only he knew [a condom] made no difference.” Because conflict runs at a constant fever pitch, there is no real arc to the story, and neither a minor character's suicide attempt nor a hasty truce among three of the girls provides much resolution.
More messy than juicy; for gossip-blog devotees only. (Chick-lit. 12-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7582-6317-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Faintly feminist soft science fiction for preteens and teens.
Once again, spunky teen-midwife Gaia takes down a dystopia.
After fleeing from the Enclave, Gaia finds the utopia to which her grandmother once fled (Birthmarked, 2010). Like an inverse of the Enclave, Sylum offers equality and fairness in spades, but once Gaia digs deeper she finds it’s another dystopia, this time controlled by women (namely the charismatic, blind Matrarc). But something in the air kills anyone who leaves, so Gaia must stay. Immediately she finds herself in the middle of a power struggle, as she questions the status quo, befriends the women who opt out of the "marriage and ten children" regulations that protect the population, argues that men (the majority population) deserve a vote too, performs secret autopsies and unravels the mystery of why those who leave die. Whew! Plus, she juggles a love quadrangle with two brothers from Sylum and Luke, who has fled his powerful father back at the Enclave to follow Gaia across the wasteland. A satisfying repeat of the same heavy themes as the first volume (women’s rights over their own bodies; an individual’s rights versus the power of the community and government; the way in which the masses are drugged—now literally—into quiescent submission) is here leavened with new settings and more kissing.
Faintly feminist soft science fiction for preteens and teens. (Dystopia. 12-16)Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59643-570-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2011
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
