by R.K. Wheeler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 2, 2018
Familiar mythological characters populate a creative, enjoyable story.
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Wheeler (Scions of Azazyel, 2017, etc.) launches a fantasy series with a tale of a witch-turned-vampire whose new life includes mythical creatures and her own coven.
Lilith has been capable of wielding magic and conversing with spirits ever since she was a child. After her parents die, she opens a shop, telling fortunes and selling amulets in the town of Endor. There, she meets a man named Lamech, and the two gradually fall in love. Lamech admits that he’s a vampire, and Lilith allows him to turn her so that the two can spend immortality together. She later gets pregnant and subsequently gives birth to a gorgon, whom they name Medusa. But when King David, who has a policy of banishing and killing magic-users, sends troops to Endor, the couple and their child flee. While they’re at sea, sailors attempt to rob them, inciting a fiery confrontation that separates Lamech from his wife and child. Lamech, who believes that Lilith and Medusa are dead, becomes the prisoner of a powerful immortal, while Lilith establishes a coven of vampires in Greece. Years later, she hears of Maldivar, a vampire using werewolves in a quest to destroy others of his own kind, and it isn’t long before he and his beastly lackeys come for Lilith’s coven. Wheeler’s story seamlessly blends Christian elements with Greek mythology. Medusa’s father, Lamech, for example, is Cain’s descendant, whose vampirism stems from accidentally killing his ancestor; thus, he’s afflicted with Cain’s curse. There’s a plethora of other recognizable figures, as well, from fallen angels to Lilith’s lover Adonis and their twin gorgon daughters, Sthenno and Euryale. Wheeler effectively teases the series’ epic potential by prefacing chapters with snippets of verse, which sometimes allude to larger events, such as the biblical Great Flood, which Lamech witnessed firsthand. A 15-year narrative gap omits essential parts of Lilith’s backstory, including her process of amassing her coven, but this and other events may yet be explored in planned sequels.
Familiar mythological characters populate a creative, enjoyable story.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 152
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Max Brooks ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 16, 2020
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
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New York Times Bestseller
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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BOOK TO SCREEN
by Colleen Hoover ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 2, 2016
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
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New York Times Bestseller
IndieBound Bestseller
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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