Effervescent, ethereal, and suffused with wonder.
Estranged siblings embark on a supernaturally guided search for their absent mom.
Five years ago, when Zadie Wilder was 18 and her half sister, Finn, was 12, their mother, Nora, left their Texas home and vanished. Finn went to live with loving foster parents, while Zadie had to fend for herself. The girls grew apart, but now that Finn has graduated high school, they hope to reconnect during a celebratory vacation. Zadie arranges to borrow a friend’s Galveston condo, as she is secretly pregnant with her ex’s baby and wants nothing more than to sit on the beach and get lost in a good book. Then Finn experiences an “echo” of Nora while visiting the zoological gardens. Though Finn has been an antenna for left-behind memories since she was 8, they’re usually just meaningless fragments: “the sound of a doorbell, the drag of water running through hair, the sour scent of newly laid mulch.” This, however, is the most comprehensive echo she has felt and the first she has found left by her mom. Almost simultaneously, Zadie—a reluctant psychic whose premonitions come as intrusive thoughts—is struck by a cryptic phrase: “The sky is full of birds.” Finn suggests they spend the week searching for Nora by following her memories like breadcrumbs. Zadie protests, having never forgiven Nora for leaving, but ultimately relents; even a crappy road trip beats being alone. Wryly funny and tinged with melancholy, Lang’s beguiling tale unfolds via a prismatic third-person narrative that frequently flashes back to contextualize Nora’s disappearance. Exquisitely drawn characters imbue Lang’s unconventional plot with verisimilitude and heart, inspiring readers to ponder whether the world is stranger and more beautiful than it appears.
Effervescent, ethereal, and suffused with wonder.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2502-4691-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.
Following a vampire across more than 200 years, this novel considers “whether this world and life in it is a kindness or an unkindness, a blessing or a curse.”
At the age of 10, Anna faces illness and death daily as an epidemic sweeps through her town. After the deaths of her father and brother, and when she's at her sickest, her grandfather arrives. Just as she’s about to succumb to the illness that killed her whole family, he transforms her into a vampire like himself. When she asks him why he did it, he replies: “This world, my dear child, all of it, right to the very end if there is to be an end, is a gift. But it’s a gift few are strong enough to receive. I made a judgment that you might be among those strong few, that you might be better served on this side of things than the other. I thought you might find some use for the world, and it for you.” The years that follow are difficult and often wrought with loss for Anna. She lives many lives over the centuries and eventually takes on the name Collette LaSange, opening a French preschool in Millstream Hollow, New York. Chapters alternate between Anna’s life beginning in the 1830s and her current life in 1984 as Collette. Notable points of tension arise when Collette tries unsuccessfully to sate her hunger, which is becoming increasingly unbearable, and as her interest in the artistic growth of a student named Leo deepens. Through decadently vivid prose—which could have been streamlined at times—this hefty novel meditates on major themes such as life, love, and death with exceptional acumen. The final questions in the book—“How presumptuous is the gift of life? What arrogance is implicit in the act of love that calls another into existence?”—serve as an anchor to meditations on these themes found throughout.
A new and contemplative take on the vampire novel.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781250856760
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
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