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The Fig-Preserve Clock

Name: The Fig-Preserve Clock
Author: Sarah M. Amiama
ISBN: 978-1495322914

by Sarah M. Amiama ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2014

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Amiama’s bewitching debut novel features a couple trapped in a time loop at the hands of a conniving djinni.
With a weakness for scotch and a few lingering wounds from a bad divorce, Brandon Mann is a history professor and doctorate student specializing in the mythology of djinn, or genies. He and his younger girlfriend, Julia Venegas, a university student and waitress with a good reason to fear losing the ones she loves, have just moved in together into Brandon’s late grandmother’s house in the sleepy town of Companion. Unbeknownst to them, the clock on the mantle—an heirloom with Spanish conquistador origins—is home to a devious djinni named Zuba, and on one of the first nights in their new home, a seemingly harmless lover’s game has wicked consequences. Julia forgets Brandon, and he is forced to relive the same day until he can figure out how to win her back and break the loop. Amiama’s book wastes no time, diving right into the thick of this repeating alternate reality from Page 1. That can make for an overwhelming beginning few chapters, but in a feat of impressive storytelling, the explanation comes in bits and pieces along the way. Likably flawed Brandon tries and fails again and again to win back his amnesiac partner, no thanks to Zuba and his questionable advice, but it’s when the narrative focus shifts away from him to Julia that the novel goes from fairly interesting to fully engrossing. Unfortunately, by the time she takes the reins, there isn’t much book left for her to develop the same depth that Brandon enjoys. Julia ends up feeling unfinished and underutilized—a shame, since she arguably has the more complicated storyline. The ending feels a little rushed, too; a more daring denouement might have been more fitting, but it’s a well-crafted tale nonetheless.
An absorbing Groundhog Day–like drama with a mystical twist.

Pub Date: April 30, 2014

ISBN: 978-1495322914

Page Count: 218

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: July 17, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.