A tale with an ethereal hero that’s just getting started, but profound nonetheless, and illustrative in every sense.
A murdered teen returns as an angel and wanders the Earth in search of purpose in this graphic novel debut.
Cyrus Michael is sure he’s dead. After all, someone’s just fired a bullet into his heart. So he’s understandably shocked when he later awakens in an unfamiliar place. With a brand new pair of wings on his back, he walks into town, where apparently no one can see or hear him. It doesn’t seem that anyone’s there to explain his quandary, and he believes he’ll forever be alone. One night while taking shelter in an abandoned church, Cyrus finds a boy tied to a cross and shot in the chest. He carries the boy, Pucky, to Fairweather Hospital and meets the victim’s father, who not only can see Cyrus, but initiates a conversation with him. Determined to be a better person now than when he was alive, the angel hopes that finding Pucky’s assailant will prove meaningful. He’s certain the person responsible is a strange, singing man dressed in white, who passed Cyrus on the way to Fairweather. The teen heads to the place he last saw the suspect, derelict apartments where the man in white, claiming simply to be following orders, threatens a stranger and his son. Cyrus follows the man farther into the dark building, and possibly into his mind, winding up in an alley and facing a beast sporting giant cleavers. It’s fitting that Beguesse is both author and artist, relaying much of the story visually. There’s little dialogue/narrative, while symbolic imagery proves louder than words, like Cyrus as a flea (how he believes the world sees him) and a sword he pulls from his spine. The tale’s primarily a mystery: Cyrus eventually recalls his murderer’s name, Nicholas, but readers don’t learn who the killer is until the end. A good deal is left unexplained for subsequent volumes, including the man in white’s identity and boss. Manga fans will recognize the style in Beguesse’s work, particularly Cyrus’ large eyes and exaggerated facial expressions. But the artist isn’t afraid of solid colors covering the panels: ominous shadows in the forlorn church and stark-white hospital lights.
A tale with an ethereal hero that’s just getting started, but profound nonetheless, and illustrative in every sense.Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9898879-0-8
Page Count: 208
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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