A unique, daring fantasy more interested in morality than the dazzle of other worlds.
A novel about a young man’s journey to a fantastic place, with real-world consequences for himself and his family.
With an almost chant-like cadence, Deepan renders the psychological tensions in the Patel household via the careful descriptions given by the father of 17-year-old Jake, descriptions that illuminate the many movements and evasive gestures that structure his relationship to his son. The emotional fire that fuels this father-son bond grows from a wife-mother dying of cancer, and from this metastasis spread many tendrils of grief, blame, desperation and resentment. It’s a strikingly contemporary and unorthodox prologue to a novel that the author eventually populates with sorcerers, witches, spells and mystical lands. It seems initially jarring, but this down-to-earth pathos and mature psychological detail gives the phantasmagoric portions of the book additional heft and material dimension. Jake’s father informs the reader directly that this is the story of his son and himself, and that, whatever follows, nothing will be the same for anyone involved. Jake takes the brunt of the drama as he finds his way, by aid of Ureth the witch, to Tiramonde, a fantastic land whose destiny is intertwined with his where he embarks on a quest to reverse his mother’s fate with the restorative fruit of the Dendragon Tree. Though parallel destinies and plucky chosen ones are standard fare for young-adult fantasy, the moral conundrums that compound on Jake’s shoulders set this novel apart. He searches for the fruit of the Dendragon Tree, but Jake must also contend with legends that foretell the release of an ancient, destructive dragon should he dare pluck the tree’s fruit—is his mother’s life worth that of an entire world? Eventually Jake’s father journeys to Tiramonde to retrieve his son, but that only increases the moral murkiness of Jake’s decisions. Deepan’s prose is elegant and clear, even when Jake’s proper course of action is not, and readers will get caught up in the struggles of characters with such depth and heart. If this fantasy novel were only about a troubled kingdom in need of its lost crystal, or some other well-worn trope, it would probably still have been entertaining. But the work deftly allegorizes the hero’s journey into a story about family, death and forgiveness, setting it apart as a genuine curiosity and affirming read for fantasy fans.
A unique, daring fantasy more interested in morality than the dazzle of other worlds.Pub Date: May 17, 2010
ISBN: 978-1432756703
Page Count: 321
Publisher: Outskirts
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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