Womack works familiar fantasy elements into a tale with a distinctly penumbral atmosphere for his debut. The titular MacGuffin is an ancient, semi-animate tome that guards the gateway between this world and a nebulous but plainly horrible Other. For centuries in the keeping of the de la Zouche family, descendants of Merlin and Vivien, it had been hidden away on the grounds of Oldstone Manor (now a dreary boarding school) after one keeper used its power for evil—but the time has come to fulfill a prophecy by cleansing it with the blood of a “maiden.” The onus falls on innocent young Edward Pollock, a student with uncommon sensitivity to the supernatural world and a penchant for very vivid dreams. Suddenly, Edward finds himself in a desperate struggle to understand what’s going on, to resist the malicious influences of the volume that has been thrust into his hands, and most of all to keep it away from Lady Anne de la Zouche, a beautiful, arrogant witch. The author fills out the plot with plenty of captures, escapes, betrayals and revelations, tucks in encounters with luridly sinister magical creatures and after a muddled climax leaves the door open for future episodes. Fans of Jenny Nimmo’s Charlie Bone series and similar dark-flavored fare will be drawn in. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59990-201-2
Page Count: 225
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2008
Searching for the wandering soul of her beloved sister, Mitsuko enlists the aid of a host of supernatural friends in this colorful fantasy, set in 12th-century Japan. As a member of an eminent clan, Mitsuko has spent her first 13 years in a courtly, constricted world. When part of her family is set upon, first by warrior monks who leave her new brother-in-law Yugiri dead and his wife (her sister Amaiko) dazed and numb, then by an ambitious local lord with marriageable sons, Mitsuko finds the courage to flee into the forest—and to accept the company of Goranu, a mischievous, immortal shape-changer. Sure that Amaiko's soul has followed Yugiri's into the land of the dead, she sets out to reclaim it, sped on her way by several Buddhist and Shinto spirits, some kind, some dangerous. Although elaborate courtesies, a round of poetry parties, and stylized conversation slow the beginning, Mitsuko will win readers over with her determination and the forthright way she faces the powers of heaven and hell. Less intense than Katharine Paterson's Of Nightingales That Weep (1974), and even whimsical at times, the story and its tricks, chases, sudden changes of scene, and its large cast of humans and nonhumans, will appeal to fans of Lensey Namioka's samurai tales. The account ends with a poignant, romantic twist: Goranu offers to end his life so he can come back as a mortal and marry her. A readable, engagingly semiserious adventure. (glossary) (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-201392-X
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
An earnest, plodding novel of the future, in which a teenager is shocked to discover a community of disabled outcasts living in tunnels below her city. With human society reduced to two closely regulated walled cities, permission is required to go Outside to visit the ``environment.'' When Gem, 16, discovers in the database an old map showing rivers and other points of access underground, her friend Jay admits knowing all about them and takes her down to meet the Waterbound, inhabitants who live in darkness and semidarkness. Blind Mike, deaf Sal, wheelchair-bound Sophie, and others, perhaps a hundred altogether, are dead, according to official records, but were secretly rescued by courageous hospital workers. It turns out that Gem and everyone she knows has a sibling below ground; her previously unsuspected sister, Alice, has gone ``Downstream beyond'' to an unknown fate. Stemp's disabled people display a realistic mix of dispositions, but they're all types—one blind, one legless, one with cerebral palsy—and unlike Gregory Maguire's I Feel Like The Morning Star (1989) or Lois Lowry's The Giver (1993), there are no authority figures to grapple with or moral dilemmas to conquer. The plot, replete with hanging threads, is also practically devoid of danger, suspense, humor, or surprise, nor does the climax, in which the Waterbound suddenly decide to reveal themselves by writing notes on folded paper flowers and floating them downstream, lead to any clear resolution. (Fiction. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8037-1994-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
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