A light, enjoyable horror story, with just the right amount of creepiness for younger readers.
In this middle-grade novel, a teenage girl may have to rescue her little brother when his Halloween mask takes on a life of its own.
Now that she’s a teen, Laura is forgoing trick-or-treating in favor of this year’s Halloween party with classmates. But Mom insists she take her 7-year-old brother, Trevor, trick-or-treating, as he’s still too young to go alone. The two decide to get masks at a peculiar local shop, which recently opened at the old mall that other stores have abandoned. Doctor Blaack’s Mask Shop is jampacked with masks, and by the time Laura encounters the owner, Trevor has wandered off. She and Blaack finally discover the terrified boy donning a mouse mask that refuses to come off. Though they can’t remove the mask, Blaack assures them it will fall off precisely at midnight tomorrow—Halloween. Luckily, the next day at school is a costume day, so Trevor doesn’t stand out. But the mask not only seems to be growing, it’s also gradually taking over Trevor, talking when it wants and even directing him where it wants to go. And as it turns out, if Trevor isn’t in a specified place by midnight, the mask will stay on his face permanently. Rasnic Tem’s (Ubo, 2017, etc.) horror tale, with shades of R.L. Stine’s The Haunted Mask, is an equal blend of fun and spine-tingling episodes. Blaack, for one, is eccentric but not outright malevolent. He’s also discernible, as he tends to bray his vowels (“That’s quite all ri-ight, my dear”). Much of the humor is understated and doesn’t derail the plot. The school’s costume parade, for example, is amusing but unquestionably chaotic: “Vampires and cowboys and aliens and kitty cats stood around talking and laughing and being just generally loud and way too annoying.” In the same vein, the mask, or “mouse head,” as the narrative eventually dubs it, becomes the book’s tangible villain. Certain traits, like an impossibly long tongue, leave a lasting and unsettling impression.
A light, enjoyable horror story, with just the right amount of creepiness for younger readers.Pub Date: Oct. 9, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9997736-0-4
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Hex Publishers
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A lovely, painful book: Walker's finest work yet.
Walker (In Love and Trouble, Meridian) has set herself the task of an epistolary novel—and she scores strongly with it.
The time is in the Thirties; a young, black, Southern woman named Celie is the primary correspondent (God being her usual addressee); and the life described in her letters is one of almost impossible grimness. While young, Celie is raped by a stepfather. (Even worse, she believes him to be her real father.) She's made to bear two children that are then taken away from her. She's married off without her consent to an older man, Albert, who'd rather have Celie's sister Nettie—and, by sacrificing her body to Albert without love or feeling, Celie saves her sister, making it possible for her to escape: soon Nettle goes to Africa to work as a Christian missionary. Eventually, then, halfway through the book, as Celie's sub-literate dialect letters to God continue to mount (eventually achieving the naturalness and intensity of music, equal in beauty to Eudora Welty's early dialect stories), letters from Nettie in Africa begin to arrive. But Celie doesn't see them—because Albert holds them back from her. And it's only when Celie finds an unlikely redeemer—Albert's blues-singer lover Shug Avery—that her isolation ends: Shug takes Celie under her wing, becomes Celie's lover as well as Albert's; Shug's strength and expansiveness and wisdom finally free up Nettie's letters—thus granting poor Celie a tangible life in the now (Shug's love, encouragement) as well as a family life, a past (Nettie's letters). Walker fashions this book beautifully—with each of Celie's letters slowly adding to her independence (the implicit feminism won't surprise Walker's readers), with each letter deepening the rich, almost folk-tale-ish sense of story here. And, like an inverted pyramid, the novel thus builds itself up broadeningly while balanced on the frailest imaginable single point: the indestructibility—and battered-ness—of love.
A lovely, painful book: Walker's finest work yet.Pub Date: June 28, 1982
ISBN: 0151191549
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1982
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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BOOK TO SCREEN
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
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