If it all sounds slightly bonkers, it is—but Logan’s unique combination of bombastic action sequences, off-kilter...
The stakes are raised when opposing forces threaten all-out war in the midst of the zombie apocalypse.
Scottish journalist Logan (Wannabes, 2014, etc.) returns to the gore-filled world portrayed in his debut, Apocalypse Cow (2013). This is very much a novel about getting the band back together, at least those members of the motley crew who managed to survive the first go-round. To recap, a botched attempt to create a bioweapon created zombie cows in Britain in the first book. Now the outbreak has spread to humans, though the zombies it creates are more Invasion of the Body Snatchers than traditional monsters. “Extreme cases aside, the virus seems to have translated into more arguments, a lot more sex, and an inability to queue. They’d become Italian,” Logan writes. Journalist Lesley McBrian’s bestselling memoir of survival lands her a gig with the New York Times. She soon discovers a plot among the American, Russian, and Chinese governments to initiate “Operation Excision,” which intends to eradicate the infected Brits, along with aid workers, with a one-two punch of nerve gas and neutron bombs. Lesley and her source are duly kidnapped and dumped back in Great Britain. Teenager Geldof Peters travels from Croatia to Scotland under the protection of mercenaries hired by his grandfather. Young Ruen Peat has come under the protection of Fanny Peters, a social activist and Geldof’s mum. Fanny and her people have discovered that although they're infected, they've been able to fight off the effects through meditation, dope smoking, “combat yoga,” and sex. Finally, the U.K. prime minister, Tony Campbell, has decided that if there’s any threat to his country, he'll use his last intercontinental ballistic missile to spread the disease worldwide.
If it all sounds slightly bonkers, it is—but Logan’s unique combination of bombastic action sequences, off-kilter characters, and wild-eyed scenarios should please fans of speculative fiction and horror alike.Pub Date: June 9, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-06165-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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