An impressive, creepy tale that may make some online daters cautious.
Two Portland, Oregon, teens investigate their loved ones’ inexplicably strange behavior and soon find themselves in danger in Field’s (Nocturnal, 2015, etc.) thriller.
When Karl Morgan’s older sister, Stacey, shows up late for work the morning after her date with ophthalmologist Adam Reynolds, she doesn’t seem to be herself. She ignores her beloved cat, too, and also candidly tells Karl about her sexual escapades. As the days go on, Stacey only gets worse, becoming more erratic and even violent with their mother on Christmas Day. Convinced that his sister is repressing some kind of trauma (possibly a date rape), Karl looks for answers, starting with Adam, whom Stacey had met on an online dating site. Seventeen-year-old Dawn Flint, meanwhile, is in a similar predicament; her mother, Isobel, connects with a woman named Maxine via the internet and, post-date, is acting very different. Specifically, she unnerves Dawn with her shifting facial expressions, which show apparent terror one second and a complete lack of emotion the next. As the teen tracks down Maxine’s previous hookups, Karl enlists the aid of a private investigator. Later, he spots a mysterious, gray-haired man whom Stacey had mentioned during hypnotherapy. Karl and Dawn eventually team up but soon confront something that’s much bigger and more horrifying than they anticipated. Field’s somber tale thrives on keeping readers largely in the dark, especially regarding exactly what happened to Stacey and Isobel. There are, however, enough hints and speculations to provide readers with a thoroughly unnerving experience. Adam, for example, sports a perpetual grin that won’t go away—even as Karl punches him in the face. A haunting dread surrounds the story and its main characters, who don’t know who all the bad guys are or even how many there are. The pace is relentless, with very few moments of humor or relief. Although the bloody and unforgettable final act offers resolution, Field shrewdly keeps some ambiguity alive, and the closing line of dialogue will surely give readers jitters.
An impressive, creepy tale that may make some online daters cautious.Pub Date: June 9, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 418
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
