Disappointingly short but thoroughly gripping and often unpredictable.
In Teller’s debut supernatural thriller, a satanic cult attempts to bring about Satan’s prophesied apocalypse, while spiritual combatants try to stop their diabolical plan.
According to Pope Leo XIII’s vision in the 19th century, Satan, in a conversation with the Lord, claimed he could destroy the Roman Catholic Church in 100 years. Many believe the timeline began in 1917, when the Holy Virgin Mary appeared to 11-year-old Lúcia Dos Santos in Fátima, Portugal. The Virgin Mary shows the young girl and her cousins images of future worldwide destruction and asks that they keep it a secret (for now) that Satan has brought evil to the Church and the apocalyptic Three Days of Darkness are imminent. As the years pass, occultists collectively known as the Society perform human sacrifices and use an orphanage as a “staging area for demonic practices.” The Society wants to summon powerful demons to create chaos throughout the world. Fortunately, the Blue Army of Mary and Christ wages war against the devilish group. As the menacing Friday, Oct. 13, 2017, end date approaches, people on both sides discover their roles in the fight, including teenager Katherine Moore in 1979 and Grace Harding in 2017. Some, however, are part of a final ritual and destined to be sacrificed to release the Prince of Darkness and his minions. Teller’s story is dense with historical details, including the real-life Dos Santos, who did claim to have seen the Virgin Mary. There’s a plethora of fictional characters, as well, with many revealed later to have shocking connections (and even alliances) with others. Among the numerous deaths and ever shifting perspectives, the book essentially lacks a primary protagonist. Extending the novel to better develop the characters might have sharpened the story’s focus by generating more sympathy for the various players. That said, the rich religious backdrop gives this thriller some heft. Also, Teller sculpts deliriously grim passages along the way: “White, frothy, sputum oozed from her mouth simultaneously while her tongue swirled around in a crazed snake-like pattern.”
Disappointingly short but thoroughly gripping and often unpredictable.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Vista Alegre Publishing House
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2018
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
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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