An often enjoyable story of a brave girl’s journey with a well-developed setting and characters.
A teenage girl in ancient times starts a sacred journey to become the first person ever to tame and ride a horse in Barnes’ debut novel.
In this story set in 4000 B.C.E. in what is now southeastern Europe, Naya is the 14-year-old daughter of Potis, the chief of her clan. She chafes against traditional rules, wishing for the freedom that the boys in her tribe are afforded. An encounter with a wild, red filly, which appears to telepathically communicate with her, secures the girl’s belief she’s meant for something more—but she must also convince her family. Her grandmother proclaims the quest Naya’s “soul journey,” but Potis is resistant, realizing that the horses could be a source of both great power and great danger. Naya tracks the herd through the grasslands, but just as she finds them, a young nomad named Aytal accidentally impales her with an arrow. Guilt-ridden, Aytal tends to Naya while his father, Oyuun, and younger brother race to find Naya’s clan. Eager to move the clan before winter, Potis agrees to let Aytal and Oyuun watch over the injured girl with the help of Naya’s mother, Sata; in exchange, Aytal’s brother remains with the clan as a hostage. The bulk of the story centers on Naya’s recovery and reconnection with the filly, Aytal’s sacrifices as atonement, and the forbidden feelings Sata and Oyuun start to have for each other. This impeccably detailed novel illuminates Naya’s journey on the ancient Pontic-Caspian steppe. Barnes skillfully develops key relationships in a manner that will make readers invested in the narrative. She also captures the tentativeness of romance and conflicts between traditions and other strong beliefs. As this is the first book of a planned series, some story elements are only hinted at—including a potential overthrow of Potis and Aytal’s punishment—and the book may have benefited from a bit more resolution. Also, the inclusion of 20 pages of supplemental material, showcasing the research that went into this book, seems overly extensive.
An often enjoyable story of a brave girl’s journey with a well-developed setting and characters.Pub Date: May 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73696-733-1
Page Count: 278
Publisher: Lilith House Press
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.
Crandall (Sleep No More, 2010, etc.) delivers big with a coming-of-age story set in Mississippi in 1963 and narrated by a precocious 9-year-old.
Due in part to tradition, intimidation and Jim Crow laws, segregation is very much ingrained into the Southern lifestyle in 1963. Few white children question these rules, least of all Starla Caudelle, a spunky young girl who lives with her stern, unbending grandmother in Cayuga Springs, Miss., and spends an inordinate amount of time on restriction for her impulsive actions and sassy mouth. Starla’s dad works on an oil rig in the Gulf; her mother abandoned the family to seek fame and fortune in Nashville when Starla was 3. In her youthful innocence, Starla’s convinced that her mother’s now a big singing star, and she dreams of living with her again one day, a day that seems to be coming more quickly than Starla’s anticipated. Convinced that her latest infraction is about to land her in reform school, Starla decides she has no recourse but to run away from home and head to Nashville to find her mom. Ill prepared for the long, hot walk and with little concept of time and distance, Starla becomes weak and dehydrated as she trudges along the hot, dusty road. She gladly accepts water and a ride from Eula, a black woman driving an old truck, and finds, to her surprise, that she’s not Eula’s only passenger. Inside a basket is a young white baby, an infant supposedly abandoned outside a church, whom Eula calls James. Although Eula doesn’t intend to drive all the way to Nashville, when she shows up at her home with the two white children, a confrontation with her husband forces her into becoming a part of Starla’s journey, and it’s this journey that creates strong bonds between the two: They help each other face fears as they each become stronger individuals. Starla learns firsthand about the abuse and scare tactics used to intimidate blacks and the skewed assumption of many whites that blacks are inferior beings. Assisted by a black schoolteacher who shows Eula and Starla unconditional acceptance and kindness, both ultimately learn that love and kinship transcend blood ties and skin color.
Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.Pub Date: July 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0772-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A remarkably enjoyable visit with the annoying one percent, as close to crazy rich WASPs as WASPs can get.
Money makes the world go round, particularly the world of an elite Brooklyn family.
"On good days, Sasha could acknowledge how incredibly lucky she was to live in her house. It was a four-story Brooklyn limestone, a massive, formal palace that could have held ten of the one-bedroom apartments Sasha had lived in before. But on bad days...." As Sasha finally admits in a gloves-off monologue following a gender reveal party gone awry, on bad days, it's "a janky Grey Gardens full of old toothbrushes and moldy baskets." A wealthier cousin of Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest, Knopf editor Jackson's fiction debut is a comedy of manners charting the fates of the Stockton siblings and their spouses, circling around the house where they grew up in Brooklyn Heights, now inhabited by Cord and his wife, Sasha, who is referred to as the Gold Digger by Cord's sisters, Darley and Georgiana. That's unfair, though: Sasha signed a prenup. Meanwhile, Darley and her husband, Malcolm, a Korean American aviation-industry analyst who did not sign a prenup, are living off their own money as Darley fights the tedium of the entitled mommy lifestyle. Georgiana, much younger than her siblings, still single, is considered the do-gooder of the family because she works for a nonprofit, where she becomes involved in a passionate and very ill-advised relationship. From the opening scene, where Sasha's mother-in-law shows up to dinner with an entire replacement menu and a revised "tablescape," Jackson has a deft hand with all the passive-aggressive interactions that are so common in family life, perhaps particularly in this socio-economic stratum. She knows her party themes, her tennis clubs, her silent auctions, and her WASP family dynamics. Rich-people jokes, cultural acuity, and entertaining banter keep this novel moving at a sprightly pace as the characters learn their lessons about money and morals, though some of the virtuous reform seems a little much.
A remarkably enjoyable visit with the annoying one percent, as close to crazy rich WASPs as WASPs can get.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-59-349069-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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