Great fare for fans of gothic fiction or simply good storytelling.
This Southern gothic tale follows a bedraggled carnival as it limps through the Deep South.
It’s 1922, and Pontilliar’s Spectacular Star Light Miraculum has been “on its last legs for the past fifteen years.” The carnival has a wonderfully odd collection of freaks for public amazement, including a man with a third leg and a geek who bites the heads off chickens. Trouble begins when the geek inexplicably hangs himself—you’d think a geek would have everything to live for—and a handsome, well-dressed stranger named Daniel presents himself to Pontilliar as the “new glomming geek.” Protagonist Ruby Chole is Pontilliar’s daughter, a sympathetic character who is tattooed from head to toe and plays the snake charmer, Esmeralda the Enchantress. Ruby senses something sinister about Daniel even before the second terrible incident: Daniel challenges gambling addict Tom Given to a dice game of Dead Man All In and wins Tom’s beautiful girlfriend, January, who seems to have no say in the matter. Tom then horrifies his carnival colleagues by falling to his death from a Ferris wheel. Among the carnival workers, “There were whispers of madness. And of murderers.” Ruby suspects that Daniel has killed both men—or caused them to die. But no one is prepared for the further havoc that befalls the carnival. Daniel reveals himself to the reader as being other than human—as a god, in fact. The “hell-sent geek” has lived as a trickster for countless centuries and is delighted whenever he can cause disasters. In the end, Ruby must find a way to deal with him—she can’t kill him, so she had better come up with a trick of her own. This is a tale brimming with imagination and rich in melancholy as it pits the natural against the supernatural and touches on what it means to be human.
Great fare for fans of gothic fiction or simply good storytelling.Pub Date: Jan. 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-947993-41-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Polis Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
This is historical adventure on a grand scale, right up there with the works of Conn Iggulden and Minette Walters.
Plenty of gore from days of yore fills the 12th entry in Cornwell’s The Last Kingdom series (War of the Wolf, 2018, etc.).
The pagan warlord Uhtred of Bebbanburg narrates his 10th-century adventures, during which he hacks people apart so that kingdoms might be stitched together. He is known to some as the Godless or the Wicked, a reputation he enjoys. Edward, King of Wessex, Mercia, and East Anglia is gravely ill, and Uhtred pledges an oath to likely heir Æthelstan to kill two rivals, Æthelhelm and “his rotten nephew,” Ælfweard, when the king dies. Uhtred’s wife, Eadith, wants him to break that oath, but he cannot live with the dishonor of being an oathbreaker. The tale seems to begin in the middle, as though the reader had just turned the last page in the 11th book—and yet it stands alone quite well. Uhtred travels the coast and the river Temes in the good ship Spearhafoc, powered by 40 rowers struggling against tides and currents. He and his men fight furious battles, and he lustily impales foes with his favorite sword, Serpent-Breath. “I don’t kill the helpless,” though, which is one of his few limits. So, early in the story, when a man calling himself “God’s chosen one” declares “We were sent to kill you,” readers may chuckle and say yeah, right. But Uhtred faces true challenges such as Waormund, “lord Æthelhelm’s beast.” Immense bloodletting aside, Cornwell paints vivid images of the filth in the Temes and in cities like Lundene. This is mainly manly fare, of course. Few women are active characters. The queen needs rescuing, and “when queens call for help, warriors go to war.” The action is believable if often gruesome and loathsome, and it never lets up for long.
This is historical adventure on a grand scale, right up there with the works of Conn Iggulden and Minette Walters.Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-06-256321-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
A heartfelt tale of love too stubborn to surrender to human frailties.
When Chi Chi Donatelli gave famous crooner Saverio Armandonada a manicure on a 1930s New Jersey beach, little did she know that the swanky singer would change her life.
After his childhood sweetheart married another man, Saverio left the security of his job on the factory line in Detroit, earning his father’s disapproval but opening wide the door to success as a big-band singer. Along his way to stardom, Saverio changed his name to Tony Arma and discovered a talent for romancing—but never marrying—the ladies. But once he meets Chi Chi, his bachelor days are numbered. From a large, boisterous Italian family, Chi Chi is eager to have a life like Tony’s, with the freedom to sing and travel the country. She wants no part of marriage with its shackles. Soon Chi Chi and Tony are touring together, eventually developing a profitable shtick, with Chi Chi writing bestselling songs and Tony serenading them to dreamy audiences. It’s only a matter of time before Tony proposes. After all, unlike his other girls, Chi Chi offers Tony not only beauty and charm, but also the stability of a home. The lovers’ work in the entertainment industry gives way to a marriage blessed with babies yet held apart by war. Once reunited, Chi Chi’s independence and Tony’s philandering further fracture their marriage. But as Tony’s path wends from woman to woman, Chi Chi forges a new life on her own terms. A mistress of the sweeping family saga, bestselling author Trigiani (Kiss Carlo, 2017, etc.) sets Chi Chi and Tony’s lifelong love affair against the grand stage of World War II through the postwar boom years and the women’s liberation movement, tracing a society catching up with Chi Chi’s determination to control her own financial and personal freedom.
A heartfelt tale of love too stubborn to surrender to human frailties.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-231925-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
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