A brisk, nuanced story of supernatural sightings and adolescent tribulations.
In Ziemer’s debut YA tale, a teenager believes he’s seen a ghost from his town’s folklore.
Brian Krueger’s life is a struggle after the death of his paternal grandfather. The teen’s dad responds by drinking heavily, prompting his unemployment. So Brian’s mom finds a job, which takes the family from Chicago to just outside Winston, Illinois. Their new neighbors, the Vincenzis, include teenage “Pete the Pyro,” a bully who loves building huge bonfires but clearly doesn’t like Brian. Luckily, Brian has a friend in Sharon Rice. They have English class together at Winston North and team up on a research paper. Their topic is the reputed ghost of Jamie McVay, a local legend. Brian’s interest is personal: One night, he sensed the presence of a speeding train in the same spot, he later learns, of a fatal train accident decades ago. He also saw a red signal light evidently belonging to McVay, the conductor reputedly on the doomed train. Research dredges up secrets surrounding both the wreck and McVay himself. Brian, meanwhile, already has his share of problems: his alcoholic father, constant bullying from Pete and his cronies, and Sharon’s new social status, which may sever their friendship. It all culminates in a Halloween night of shocks and revelations. Despite supernatural elements, Ziemer’s novel is consistently subtle. For example, the red signal light typically indicates McVay’s presence, in lieu of a more overt ghostly image. Likewise understated is Brian and Sharon’s relationship. While potential romance between the teens is apparent, their steadily developing friendship deepens organically, and their mutual attraction is obvious, though neither explicitly addressing it. There’s minimal suspense with regard to the restless spirit of McVay. The scariest parts are generally more relatable, involving such things as Brian’s inebriated dad behind the wheel (with Brian in the passenger seat) and Pete’s rather unnerving fondness for flames. The author’s tight prose helps the story retain a swift pace all the way to a climax that, even if readers see it coming, is wholly gratifying.
A brisk, nuanced story of supernatural sightings and adolescent tribulations.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-68433-215-1
Page Count: 237
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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