An engrossing, if somewhat emotionally superficial, tale of early tribal life in North America through the eyes of an...
In this “fish out of water” YA novel, a Maine teenager finds himself thrust back in time to an ancient encampment of the Native American tribe that, centuries ago, inhabited his backyard.
Matthew is a typical high school junior with a girlfriend, a summer job as a grocery store stock boy, and a love of the outdoors. One summer evening, as he is waiting for his mother to get home to cook dinner, he collapses after being bitten by an unusual-looking black fly. When he awakes, he is surprised to find himself in a rustic structure surrounded by people speaking a strange language. Although he recognizes a few familiar landmarks, everything else seems to have changed. Instead of his house and backyard, the area is filled with Native American dwellings and the daily activities of tribal life before any contact with white settlers. The residents of the tiny village accept Matt into their circle even though they can only communicate with gestures. Viewing his situation with some curiosity, Matt names his new friends, some (like Aunt Martha and George) for people they remind him of and others (Mosquito, Contentment, and Sourpuss) for observed characteristics. As he follows them through their routines of food gathering and preparation, tool making, pottery, and basket weaving, Matt gains appreciation for the tribal members’ kindness, skills, and highly efficient management and use of natural resources. Will (Last Entry, 2016) is an anthropologist, and his examination of prehistoric Native American life is intriguing and absorbing. His writing demonstrates skillful descriptive powers, whether painting the beauty of the Maine countryside, detailing the deeds of the tribe, or “reminiscing” about small-town life in 21st-century New England. What is missing in this YA tale is an effective exploration of Matt’s emotional reaction to his dislocation in time. Where one might expect panic, anger, and loneliness, Matt reacts to his situation with bland equanimity, at most remarking: “I’ve always been interested in Native American culture, but this can’t be happening. I don’t want it to be happening.” If this leaves the narrative feeling less like a convincing story of teen time travel than an anthropologist’s account, it is at least a compelling one.
An engrossing, if somewhat emotionally superficial, tale of early tribal life in North America through the eyes of an outsider.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2015
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 248
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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