A wildly imaginative, occasionally haunting fantasy anchored by strong, evolving female characters.
A girl tumbles into a fantastical world imperiled by toxic babies, a shape-shifting disease, suspicious magic, dubious technology, and greedy entrepreneurs.
In this frequently giggle-out-loud debut novel for teens and adults, 10-year-old “persnickety” ElizabethAnn Von Earp leaves behind her late-21st-century arid, insecticide- and hot tar–smelling town to follow her free-spirited Grandma—and a talking monkey wearing a polo shirt and a gold watch—down an animal burrow that proves to be a portal to the failing kingdom of Bumblegreen. There, magic has been banned; portal travel to other worlds is punishable by death; parents have developed an allergy to their babies so severe that infants must be fostered by genetically engineered monkeys; and a disease causes animals to turn into humans. With nods to Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, there is a wealth of entertaining details to unpack here, and Peru keeps the narrative flowing, alternately shifting focus from ElizabethAnn to Grandma (a fugitive from Bumblegreen justice); monkey geneticist Zade Fandey; the duchess, a scheming hoarder (“to own is to exist”); wistful trout-turned-human Hank; pregnant cook Tammy, abandoned and seeking black magic vengeance; her seducer, Fast Eddie; Earl, the watch-wearing monkey; ElizabethAnn’s dog, Jackson; and Bumblegreen’s 13-year-old Queen Dahlia, who would rather make cheese than deal with affairs of state. Among her outlandish adventures, ElizabethAnn weathers capture by butterflies with dark intentions, a mad dash over the rainforest canopy, and a 20-foot growth spurt during a mob-fueled trial to depose the queen, eventually becoming aware that she has a stake in Bumblegreen’s survival. Indeed, the author deepens the fantasy with unexpectedly thoughtful moments as ElizabethAnn and Dahlia gain believable strength and insight over the course of the book. ElizabethAnn’s experience at one point with “the elusive nature of momentary inner peace,” tinged with sadness, is particularly evocative. The impressively creative novel is divided into four parts (“Five Syllables Worth of Girl,” “The Cumbersome Outriggings of Queenliness,” “The Understated Elegance of Impossible Tasks,” and “The Hue and Cry of a Bloodletting Mob”), each one introduced by an exquisitely detailed, pen-and-ink image by debut illustrator Harris.
A wildly imaginative, occasionally haunting fantasy anchored by strong, evolving female characters.Pub Date: May 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-51348-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Pangloss Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2019
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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