While not exactly innovative, a highly entertaining, speculative glimpse of the end of the world.
A debut novel offers a fusion of apocalyptic fiction, SF, and horror that chronicles a family’s struggle to survive after civilization collapses.
In near-future Southern California, 20-year-old Grace Baker’s life is turned upside down when terrorists destroy the national power grid, effectively throwing the country into chaos. Her father, a former military man who used to have top-secret clearance, succeeds in getting his family (which includes Grace, her mother, and her older brother) out of Los Angeles before the city is bombed to rubble by an unknown adversary. Dodging roving bands of criminals and collecting valuable goods along the way, the Bakers make it north to a secluded cabin they own hidden in a remote forest. But their chances of survival are greatly reduced when they realize that the post-apocalyptic world is now inhabited by invisible monsters that are hunting humans like prey. One by one, Grace’s family members are killed until she is left alone to fend for herself. While on a scavenging mission in a nearby town, she fatefully meets Nick Gates, a young cafe worker (and potential love interest) she knew from “Before.” Together they decide that they need to figure out a way to kill the monsters, even if it means dying in the process. While the story’s apocalyptic setting brings nothing new to the table and the invisible-monster thread has more than a few plot holes, Shannon delivers the goods by creating characters that are identifiable and emotionally compelling. Grace, for example, is a book nerd and analytical problem solver who turns out to be an ultimate badass at world’s end. Her bond with Nick is tumultuous and complicated but also undeniably authentic—and the evolution of that relationship throughout the horrors they face is an unarguable strength of this utterly readable tale.
While not exactly innovative, a highly entertaining, speculative glimpse of the end of the world.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63867-004-9
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
DYSTOPIAN FICTION | SCIENCE FICTION | SUSPENSE | FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT DYSTOPIAN FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT MYSTERY & THRILLER | GENERAL SCIENCE FICTION | APOCALYPTIC & POST APOCALYPTIC SCI-FI | SUSPENSE | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE
A weird, wild ride.
Celebrity scandal and a haunted lake drive the narrative in this bestselling author’s latest serving of subtly ironic suspense.
Sager’s debut, Final Girls (2017), was fun and beautifully crafted. His most recent novels—Home Before Dark (2020) and Survive the Night (2021) —have been fun and a bit rickety. His new novel fits that mold. Narrator Casey Fletcher grew up watching her mother dazzle audiences, and then she became an actor herself. While she never achieves the “America’s sweetheart” status her mother enjoyed, Casey makes a career out of bit parts in movies and on TV and meatier parts onstage. Then the death of her husband sends her into an alcoholic spiral that ends with her getting fired from a Broadway play. When paparazzi document her substance abuse, her mother exiles her to the family retreat in Vermont. Casey has a dry, droll perspective that persists until circumstances overwhelm her, and if you’re getting a Carrie Fisher vibe from Casey Fletcher, that is almost certainly not an accident. Once in Vermont, she passes the time drinking bourbon and watching the former supermodel and the tech mogul who live across the lake through a pair of binoculars. Casey befriends Katherine Royce after rescuing her when she almost drowns and soon concludes that all is not well in Katherine and Tom’s marriage. Then Katherine disappears….It would be unfair to say too much about what happens next, but creepy coincidences start piling up, and eventually, Casey has to face the possibility that maybe some of the eerie legends about Lake Greene might have some truth to them. Sager certainly delivers a lot of twists, and he ventures into what is, for him, new territory. Are there some things that don’t quite add up at the end? Maybe, but asking that question does nothing but spoil a highly entertaining read.
A weird, wild ride.Pub Date: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-18319-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.
The ne’er-do-well son of a successful Irish American family gets dragged into criminal complications that suggest the rest of the Devlins aren’t exactly the upstanding citizens they appear.
The first 35 years in the life of Thomas “TJ” Devlin have been one disappointment after another to his parents, lawyers who founded a prosperous insurance and reinsurance firm, and his more successful siblings, John and Gabby. A longtime alcoholic who’s been unemployable ever since he did time for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend Carrie’s then 2-year-old daughter, TJ is nominally an investigator for Devlin & Devlin, but everyone knows the post is a sinecure. Things change dramatically when golden-boy John tells TJ that he just killed Neil Lemaire, an accountant for D&D client Runstan Electronics. Their speedy return to the murder scene reveals no corpse, so the brothers breathe easier—until Lemaire turns up shot to death in his car. John’s way of avoiding anything that might jeopardize his status as heir apparent to D&D is to throw TJ under the bus, blaming him for everything John himself has done and adding that you can’t trust anything his brother has said since he’s fallen off the wagon. TJ, who’s maintained his sobriety a day at a time for nearly two years, feels outraged, but neither the police investigating the murder nor his nearest and dearest care about his feelings. Forget the forgettable mystery, whose solution will leave you shrugging instead of gasping, and focus on the circular firing squad of the Devlins, and you’ll have a much better time than TJ.
As an adjunct member says, “You’re not a family, you’re a force.” Exactly, though not in the way you’d expect.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780525539704
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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