Worthy tales that prove external forces are no more terrifying than what’s inside people’s heads.
Characters battle loneliness and unsettling occurrences in this assortment of otherworldly poems and stories.
In the opening tale, “A Deal in the Dark,” Jenny’s childhood fear of the dark has returned. But while an apparent presence may render her trepidation tangible, her real fear is more psychological: being alone. Provost’s (Memortality, 2017, etc.) vivid characters throughout are similarly tortured. Jenny only has her brother, Andy, because their parents are dead, and Alex in “Mama” is shaken by a pendulum’s prediction of his mother’s death. In the same vein, individuals secluded by bouts of insomnia and nightmares are desperate for help: Robert Delvecchio seeks a palm reader in “Breaking the Cycle,” and Alana responds to a neurologist’s Facebook ad in “Teeth.” There are occasional glimpses of creatures, and Provost sticks mostly with the classics: vampires, ghosts, aliens, and even dragons. But trekking familiar terrain allows the author to deftly subvert readers’ expectations. “Lamp Unto My Fate,” for example, features a genie, complete with the tried-and-true moral of being careful what you wish for. But protagonist Maximus, a litigator, and the newly freed genie treat the wish-giving as a business deal, prompting some fun “verbal sparring.” Other instances of humor crop up but never fully dominate the book’s grim tone. Such is the case for the titular character in “Nightmare’s Eve (Rotten Robbie’s Christmas Comeuppance)”; his mischievous ways are a clue that his encounter with Santa likely won’t turn out well. Provost’s poetry varies in rhyming schemes but skillfully displays the same somber themes as the stories. Isolation, for one, is depicted in illustrative lines, as in “Lost at Sea”: “The mast falls like a hammer / The deck, it cracks and splinters / The North Wind howls and taunts me / With the breath of countless winters.” Fortunately, not all of the tales are filled entirely with dread. Some, like the closing story, “George & the Dragon: The Untold Story,” have uplifting moments amid all that death and solitude.
Worthy tales that prove external forces are no more terrifying than what’s inside people’s heads.Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-948594-04-2
Page Count: 266
Publisher: Black Raven Books
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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