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BORN AND RAISED

Name: BORN AND RAISED
Author: R.A. Doty
ISBN: 978-1-73275-452-2

From the Immediate Empire series , Vol. 1

by R.A. Doty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 2018

An exciting series starter, featuring an intriguing world with a breadth of characters and themes.

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Doty (The Last Cicada, 2018) presents a tale of a dystopian future society featuring inhabitants at the greatest extremes of class stratification: predators and prey.

At just 17 years of age, Calla is already heavily committed to serving her community in the island city of Ancada. She not only acts as a caretaker for livestock called nutrimen—the society’s most valuable food source—but she also documents her experiences for future generations. She seems to genuinely care for the apparently simple-minded, mute nutrimen, particularly one that she’s named April. However, it’s soon revealed that the nutrimen are “derived from [human] DNA.” As a result, readers will have a sense of cognitive dissonance from the very beginning, which continues throughout the story; Calla’s tone is often curious or matter-of-fact, but although her family’s life seems largely idyllic, it holds its own hidden horrors. Even harsher is the world outside, as seen through the eyes of Cole, a solitary figure living off the land; the Thorpe family, barely clinging to life and reduced to living in caves; and Thomas Steinberg, who’s hoping to trade his unscrupulous brilliance for a permanent place in Ancada. But it soon becomes clear that in the shadow of global famine, there’s no such thing as a stable society; as resentment and an urge for survival press the few remaining humans into action, they’re faced with jarring decisions and grim realities. Doty’s stark prose heightens the story’s tension and realism. The only real flaw of the book is the fact that the dialogue sometimes feels stilted and overly expository, as when Calla’s mother tells her, “It’s the way we live. When the sun begins to set we never wander from the safety of the city. That’s why the wall was built: to keep us safe.” Nevertheless, the author manages to make the reader empathize with both the perpetrators and the victims in this cruel world, whether they’re numbed by trauma or ignorant of the true horror that surrounds them. Readers will also likely consider what their own place would be in such a society.

An exciting series starter, featuring an intriguing world with a breadth of characters and themes.

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-73275-452-2

Page Count: 289

Publisher: DayLew Publishing

Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

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THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.