An uneven fantasy tale of jealousy and war that would have benefited from a clearer timeline.
Two California scientists become entangled in an ancient war between supernatural beings in Watson’s (Annie Aimright, 2018, etc.) fantasy thriller.
Vaylin Oshiro, a Stanford University student, calls his crush, Fierra Thames, after their first-semester finals (and a few months of intimacy); he asks her thoughts on love, and she responds that she doesn’t believe in it. However, when he starts seeing artist Arianna, whom he later marries, Fierra is filled with jealousy. Years later, while Vaylin and Fierra are working at Xeradyne Lab, Arianna dies in a car crash, along with their unborn child. Devastated, he eventually tries to take his own life. Shortly after being discharged from the hospital, he stumbles into an art exhibition and finally ends up at the house of the artist, Chrystas Krueger. They engage in interesting conversation and drink chilled vodka, and Chrystas does a sketch of Vaylin. Then she suddenly sinks her fangs into his neck, turning him into a blood-craving vampire. He tells Fierra, who’s fascinated by the research potential in studying a vampire’s genetic markers, so Vaylin agrees to infect her, as well. For Fierra, killing comes easy, and her complex plans to gain power catch the attention of centuries-old vampires, who enlist her help to rule all the covens. Soon, Fierra and Vaylin are on different sides in a war between vampires and a group of shape-shifters. Watson’s fantasy starts strong, recounting both Fierra’s and Vaylin’s relationships with their single parents. As the story goes on, however, the sometimes-abrupt changes in time period and location may cause confusion. Watson’s writing is fluid, and his dream sequences, in particular, flow with precision. In one scene, for example, Fierra dreams of the potential success of her research: “The fluttering dollars merged together and morphed into a great black bat….Fierra beheld its widening eyes as her dream replaced its face with Vaylin’s. Vaylin’s dreamy doppelgänger bit the woman and every church bell throughout Rome tolled.” A cliffhanger ending leaves potential for a sequel.
An uneven fantasy tale of jealousy and war that would have benefited from a clearer timeline.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-71792-096-6
Page Count: 382
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 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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