An extraordinary tale of the tribulations on the road to adulthood.
A teen’s journey to a seminary takes an unexpected turn in this coming-of-age novel.
William “Chili” Manzilla has wanted to be a priest since he was a second grader. But as a teenager in 1970s New York City, he still raises hell with his best friends, Angel Rodriguez and Mikey McGowan. They smoke, drink, and even sneak into a peep show in Times Square. Life has thrown hurdles at Chili; he lost his mother to cancer, and, as his father has since grown indifferent, he takes care of himself and his younger brother, Jamie. And though Chili has a divine vision that solidifies his priesthood ambitions, it’s possibly the result of a prank that Angel and Mikey quickly regret. Chili nevertheless remains a devout Roman Catholic and plans to attend seminary after high school graduation. Meanwhile, Jamie doesn’t find Catholic school so enlightening; he only sees corruption, like a priest who takes advantage of naïve boys. It’s a disillusionment that Chili soon experiences, and he starts to rethink his future. Schindler builds his story with a superbly developed cast. For example, Chili’s pals deal with different economic realities; Angel’s clan is well off, and Mikey’s family can’t afford to send him to a Catholic high school. Myriad scenes throughout much of the ’70s spotlight these teens having fun and reluctantly growing up, including going on a road trip out west that constantly reminds them of their waning youth. The author describes New York vividly and nostalgically, from a rumbling train above ground to a cookie factory in the Bronx with its “heavenly aroma” of baked goods. The final act turns into a sprint, complete with a huge time jump, a disappearance, and a trial. Despite the novel’s generally somber tone, glimmers of hope and happiness shine through all the way to the end.
An extraordinary tale of the tribulations on the road to adulthood.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 294
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.
A frustrated advice columnist takes matters into her own hands.
Before dropping out of MIT during the second semester of her sophomore year, Debbie Mullen had designs on becoming the next Bill Gates. Now, almost 30 years later, the stay-at-home wife and mother of two uses her considerable genius to keep the Mullens’ Hingham, Massachusetts, household functioning “like a well-oiled machine.” In her spare time, Debbie also gardens and shares “the fruits of [her] wisdom” with neighbors via the weekly advice column she writes for Hingham Household, a local “family-oriented” newspaper. Though Debbie is proud of her husband and teen daughters’ accomplishments, her own life sometimes feels a bit empty. As such, she’s both honored and excited when Home Gardening magazine selects her backyard to feature in their next issue. Then, at the last minute, the publication decides to go in a different direction and instead spotlights the roses of her arch rival. Later that day, the editor-in-chief of Hingham Household axes her column because she’d counseled a reader to get a divorce. That evening, Debbie learns that her hard-working husband’s miserly boss refused his promotion request, her brilliant older daughter’s sketchy boyfriend broke her heart, and her athletically gifted younger daughter’s chauvinistic coach cut her from the soccer team for being “chubby.” Enough is enough. Debbie has always given great advice—everybody says so. If certain individuals don’t know what’s best for themselves, maybe it’s her obligation to help them see the light. Increasingly unhinged entries from a “Dear Debbie” drafts folder pepper the briskly paced, meticulously crafted tale, which unfolds courtesy of a pinwheeling first-person narrative. Some of the plot’s myriad twists are more impressive than others, but plucky, puckish Debbie is a nontraditional antihero for the ages.
Gleefully sadistic, gloriously gratifying revenge fiction.Pub Date: Jan. 27, 2026
ISBN: 9781464249624
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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