Although inventive, the plot holds little appeal for readers who’ve never been interested in attending Comic-Con.
Readers who haven’t indulged in comic books since Archie and Jughead first strolled the halls of Riverdale High may find it difficult to relate to Palwick’s (Brief Visits, 2012, etc.) newest novel, a mixture of the serious and the absurd.
Melinda Soto, loving mother and cherished friend, is murdered while on vacation in Mexico. Her adopted son, Jeremy, and her friends manage their grief in varying ways. Jeremy, who drops out of college and finds work in a coffee shop, suffers from survivor’s guilt and feels suffocated by his mother’s friends; college professor Veronique has a meltdown in her classroom; Henrietta, a priest, finds solace in her faith; and gentle Rosemary, a volunteer chaplain at a local hospital, does her best to provide support to Jeremy and her friends while coping with her husband’s illness. But Melinda’s circle are not the only people affected by the tragedy: Following the brutal attack, murderer Percy Clark flies back to his parents’ home in Seattle and commits suicide, leaving behind his own grieving family. His mother, Anna, reaches out to Melinda’s loved ones and seeks to reconnect with her son by reading Percy’s collection of Comrade Cosmos comics. The brainchild of a group of inventive beer pong–playing college students, the comic books have spawned a cult following, which includes Jeremy Soto. Cosmos is a champion of order who appears when disaster strikes a community, and then, once he organizes rebuilding efforts, he returns home to care for his own broken family. The current storyline involves a convoluted plot about Archipelago Osprey and her pet scorpion. When she commits an outrageous act and becomes a fugitive from justice, she blames Cosmos for all her woes. Entering into a pact with the Emperor of Entropy, Archipelago heads for a big showdown at a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament just as Melinda’s friends and Jeremy pile into a van to attend Percy’s memorial service. The serious thread—Palwick’s exploration of the different emotional journeys individuals face when confronted with inexplicable loss—is intelligent and expressive, but when the narrative veers into comic-book mode, the absurdity of the story overwhelms any attempt to meld the two.
Although inventive, the plot holds little appeal for readers who’ve never been interested in attending Comic-Con.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2758-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
