A sparkling debut that leaves the reader’s mental wheels turning.
Some memories risk doing more harm than good in this cerebral debut novel of speculative fiction.
Jay Shipman’s life is pretty standard, if nerdy, teenage fare as he navigates his science camp ambitions, position on a popular video game leaderboard, and feelings for Twila Mason, his quirky crush. But the twin moons above Jay’s sleepy town put the lie to this apparent familiarity, and Jay’s world, Duorth, has plenty more to set it apart from our own. The most obvious and incredible feature of Duorth is that its people are aware of Earth. In fact, they’re reincarnations of earthlings and even dream their memories of past lives. But when Jay begins to have these recollections himself, the contents threaten to upend his life entirely and throw all understanding of his world and ours out of balance. Recalling a life as a scientist working on a biological weapon—a veritable doomsday device—for an authoritarian government forces Jay to question his own affinity for biological science and epidemiology. And the apparent brilliance of his abused, frightened past self threatens to draw the eyes of the governments of Duorth’s three great nations and reshape the world as he knows it for all time. The storytelling here unfolds adeptly, although the dialogue occasionally falters: “Jay, your name tag says you’re here for biology. What kind of biology stuff are you interested in?” Jay’s inquisitive nature makes for an engaging protagonist, but the real star is the worldbuilding. Duorth could easily appear as a broad caricature of modern life on Earth. Instead, it’s a fascinating world with its own unique slants on religion, geopolitics, and education, particularly when it comes to the study of past lives and the way Duorthians depend on them for scientific and cultural advancement. Also, these details are all delivered seamlessly, without the need for long, clumsy exposition.
A sparkling debut that leaves the reader’s mental wheels turning.Pub Date: June 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-73229-640-4
Page Count: 253
Publisher: Gazebo Bookworks
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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