Vividly rendered gothic settings and intriguing characters help advance the historical and supernatural elements despite...
In Holmes’ paranormal fantasy, a Confederate officer’s attraction to a mysterious, beautiful woman leads him into the mystical world of voodoo.
Sgt. George Francis Genois, a Confederate army officer, has returned to his Louisiana hometown to celebrate the wedding of his twin brother, Gerald. George’s visit coincides with the arrival of an Indian summer and some unusual phenomena. After celebrating with Gerald at a local saloon, George is struck by thick fog that seems to envelop him. Some time later, he sees a beautiful woman on the riverbank encouraging a group of slaves to fight for their freedom. Knowing the woman risks arrest on charges of treason, he offers to escort her away from the riverbank and back to her carriage. He soon discovers the woman’s name is Jewella and she’s the sister of a childhood friend. George finds himself inexplicably drawn to the headstrong Jewella and proposes marriage. Shortly before the wedding, Jewella is arrested for treason. Desperate to save her, he seeks out a local witch doctor named Mamuska, who agrees to help but has his own agenda. Under a voodoo moon, the fates of George and Jewella as well as Mamuska and his wife, Ophelia, hang in the balance. The strength of Holmes’ novel lies in its colorful settings and diverse cast of characters. Primarily set in Louisiana in the 1800s, the action takes George from the saloons and grand estates of Louisiana high society to the mysterious world of the rivers and bayous. George, a complex lead character, is dedicated to his military career and the Confederacy, yet he’s willing to risk everything he’s worked for to save Jewella. Holmes also brings the dual journeys of George and Mamuska together in provocative ways. For all its strengths, though, the novel could benefit from tighter editing. There are no chapter titles or numbers—each chapter is announced with the words “Next Chapter”—and spelling inconsistencies (e.g., “alter” instead of “altar”) pop up rather frequently.
Vividly rendered gothic settings and intriguing characters help advance the historical and supernatural elements despite weak editing that trips up the narrative momentum.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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