This white-knuckled creature feature delivers the goods.
In Okon’s novel, a scientist searches for an elusive, ferocious mermaid who he believes killed his father years before.
Logan Osbourne, at nearly 30 years old, is a cryptozoologist. He scours the world for cryptids—legendary creatures that have never been proven to exist, like dragons and chupacabras. Because cryptozoology is a pseudoscience, Logan and his colleagues, including his best friend Elliot Sheppard, get little respect or funding. But Logan himself has seen a cryptid in the flesh—two decades ago, when he was on a boat with his scientist father in the Hampton Bays. George Osbourne had been obsessed with proving that mermaids are real, and on that particular day, a monstrous, fishlike creature popped up and pulled George into the water while his horrified 9-year-old son watched. Now, an old friend from the Hamptons, Penny Swanson, calls Logan with news of disappearances in Minatuck, the Long Island town where Logan grew up and his father vanished. There have been odd sightings, as well; it that seems whatever grabbed George is still in the area and snatching locals, including Penny’s twin brother Rory. With Elliot in tow, Logan travels to Minatuck and looks into the disappearances and unexplained mutilations of some animals. The townspeople seem reluctant to divulge anything, particularly the chief of Minatuck’s private police force; this town, which Elliot bluntly dubs “plain old creepy,” definitely has something lurking under the surface. While Logan would like to “legitimize” mermaids, he’s more intent upon saving his former hometown from a murderous creature.
Okon’s suspenseful tale moves with impressive speed, beginning with Logan’s lengthy but riveting search for the thunderbird of Indigenous folklore; he hunts for information in Mexico with a wary cabbie and later scales an Arizona mountain. At the same time, the author ably develops his curious characters: George spiraled after his wife (and Logan’s mom) suddenly left them; Logan’s ex-girlfriend Aimee Dupres, who works for a deep-pocketed corporation, is his cryptozoology rival; and both Penny and a childhood bully (who targeted Logan and Rory) are Minatuck police officers. Minatuck itself is shrouded in a brooding atmosphere—certain locals seem to be hiding something, and dark-suited strangers show up in the present day as well as in Logan’s past. Knowing that a vicious aquatic monster can strike at any moment (especially when the hero is actively seeking it) makes any scene near water relentlessly chilling: “The inky blackness surrounded him. Fronds and seagrass undulated like ghosts in the currents. Logan shined a flashlight through the murky depths. His skin prickled with the awareness he was not alone.” That intensity increases even more in the final act as Logan gets closer to finding his quarry and, in the process, uncovers more than one surprise. While this novel is a solid standalone story, the worthy denouement leaves room for a sequel or a spinoff.
This white-knuckled creature feature delivers the goods.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781950080151
Page Count: 286
Publisher: Chelshire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 27, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.
Hill, son of the master, turns in a near-perfect homage to Stephen King.
Arthur Oakes has problems. One is that his mom, a social justice warrior, has landed in the slammer for unintentional manslaughter. And he’s one of just three Black kids at an expensive college (in Maine, of course), an easy target. A local townie drug dealer extorts him into stealing rare books from the school’s library, including one bound in human skin. The unwilling donor of said skin turns up, and so do various sinister people, one reminiscent of Tolkien’s Gollum, another a hick who lives—well, sort of—to kill. Then there’s Colin Wren, whose grandfather collects things occult. As will happen, an excursion into that arcana conjures up the title character, a very evil dragon, who strikes an agreement with fine print requiring Arthur and his circle to provide him with a sacrifice every Easter. “It’s a bad idea to make a deal with them,” says Arthur, belatedly. “Language is one of their weapons…as much as the fire they breathe or the tail that can knock down a house.” King Sorrow roasts his first victims, and the years roll by, with Arthur becoming a medieval scholar (fittingly enough, with a critical scene set at King Arthur’s fortress at Tintagel), Colin a tech billionaire with Muskian undertones (“King Sorrow was a dragon, but Colin was some sort of dark sorcerer”), and others of their circle suffering from either messing with dragons or living in an America of despair. There’s never a dull moment, and though Hill’s yarn is very long, it’s full of twists and turns and, beg pardon, Easter eggs pointing to Kingly takes on politics, literature, and internet trolls (a meta MAGA remark comes from an online review of Arthur’s book on dragons: “i was up for a good book about finding magical sords and stabbing dragons and rescuing hot babes in chainmail panties but instead i got a lot of WOKE nonsense.…and UGH it just goes on and on, couldve been hundreds of pages shorter”).
At turns spooky and funny, with bits of inside baseball and a swimming pool’s worth of blood.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780062200600
Page Count: 896
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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