A winsome, energetic series preamble for new and returning readers.
In the prequel to O’Neale’s (Eternal Sacrifice, 2016, etc.) fantasy series, a prince from a world of elementals must decide whether he can kill an innocent 15-year-old princess in order to save his court.
Prince Rowan’s relationship with his mother, Queen Prisma, is all but destroyed. For unknown reasons, she’s exiled Rowan to the world of mortals, while she rules the fire court in their parallel world of Avalon. But Prisma sends Rowan’s best friend, Marcus, to bring him back to Avalon with the promise that she’ll give up her throne. Rowan is skeptical, certain that Prisma will want something from him in exchange. Sadly, he’s right: Rowan will only get the throne if he kills, the daughter of King Taron of the air court. Kalin is half-human, living with her mortal mother in Baltimore, but Prisma believes the teenage girl is the next akasha—a rare, powerful being who can wield power over all four elements. Rowan and Marcus travel back to the mortal world via a portal with plans to assassinate Kalin, whom knights are protecting; they’re invisible to mortals, thanks to a cloaking spell called a “glamour.” But Rowan quickly has doubts about the mission, as he finds himself smitten with the red-haired girl he’s been assigned to kill. Disobeying the queen, however, will have dire results for both Rowan and his friend. O’Neale treads familiar terrain in this story, which has several elements that are reminiscent of the animated TV series Avatar: The Last Airbender. But the author packs plenty of plot and characters into the novella; the brisk story introduces various creatures (including shape-shifting “gabriel hounds,” like Marcus) and some romance (Marcus fancies an air elemental named Ariel). There’s also lots of tension, as killing Kalin has the potential to ignite a war. The well-established villains pave the way for appearances in later series installments. O’Neale’s unadorned prose successfully fuses the real world with the fantastical Avalon; Rowan’s first-person narration, for example, is rife with down-to-earth descriptions (“she seemed even more pissed than I’d envisioned”) and the go-to interjection “man.”
A winsome, energetic series preamble for new and returning readers.Pub Date: March 4, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-07-112893-0
Page Count: 98
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
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