An effective philosophical novel that uses hip-hop to tell a story of prison life and how rhyme can lead to redemption.
The first novel by KunQuest, an artist and inmate at the Louisiana State Prison in Angola since 1996.
Nineteen-year-old Lil’ Chris walks into Angola ready to serve his life sentence on his own terms. He’s not interested in friends or advice from the older “victs” and is ready to defend himself against whatever violence comes his way. Rise has been in Angola for more than 10 years after being transferred from a juvenile facility and is also serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. The two men quickly develop a respect for each other based on their ability to freestyle rap, and Rise is determined to help Lil’ Chris become a leader and role model for the other inmates. For Rise, surviving in prison isn’t about physical strength. The key to survival is philosophical, historical, and legal education, and he’s earned the respect of his peers by mentoring dozens of prisoners over the years. As Lil’ Chris’ freestyles draw him more attention, another group of inmates with a darker, more bitter worldview tries to recruit him to their ranks. The narrative roams among the characters in a close third-person point of view that creates a widescreen vision of the claustrophobic life behind bars. Readers will learn about the history of Angola, the daily grind of life in the different cell blocks (each with their own levels of freedom), and the difficulty of picking vegetables on the prison’s farm, and they will be treated to pages and pages of blistering rap lyrics. The lyrics aren’t about showing off; the rapping is necessary for these characters to hold on to their souls. “Somehow [Lil’ Chris] is conscious that these conditions are meant to kill something inside of him. He knows this because he feels whatever it is struggling to live.” KunQuest never veers into exploitation. The characters may be suffering from the mental, physical, and psychological violence of long-term imprisonment, but they find solace and complex relationships in community and art.
An effective philosophical novel that uses hip-hop to tell a story of prison life and how rhyme can lead to redemption.Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-57284-282-3
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Bolden/Agate
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.
The 25th novel featuring Silva’s legendary protagonist.
During his intersecting careers as art restorer and Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon has tangled with Russian gangsters and al-Qaida terrorists. He has become well-acquainted with operatives in multiple security agencies and befriended a paid assassin. He has busted art thieves and created passable forgeries by Renaissance masters and abstract Modernists. This latest installment centers around his relationship with the pope and a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci that has gone missing from the Vatican. Silva’s novels tend to fall into two categories: books that reflect the politics of the day and books that don’t. His latest is one of the latter, which could be a treat for readers looking for escape, but it falls flat for a variety of reasons. Luxury has always been part of Gabriel Allon’s universe. It used to be an aspect of tradecraft, though. Allon would be wearing a very expensive suit and driving a very expensive car because he was posing as a client at a Swiss bank. Here, his wife is hosting a catered lunch for 150 of their daughter’s classmates in their apartment overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. What once felt like a scintillating peek into the world of the obscenely wealthy now just feels…kind of obscene. Similarly, Allon goes chasing after a missing painting as a civilian—he retired from Mossad in Portrait of an Unknown Woman (2022)—the same way another man his age might buy a speedboat or get hair plugs. As the story progresses, the stakes are raised, but it’s hard to forget that Allon is now a middle-aged man pursuing a dangerous hobby, rather than a spymaster leading his intrepid team to prevent a disaster that will disrupt the global order.
A rather flat entry in a generally excellent series.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9780063384217
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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
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