An awkwardly executed work with a by-the-numbers plot.
In Duffy’s fantasy novel, an ordinary man is sent from heaven back to Earth, reborn into a new body.
John Robinson is middle-aged, underemployed, and unremarkable when he’s struck by a stray bullet and killed. He then enters a farcical and vaguely bureaucratic afterlife with “officers” and “assistants” filling in rank-and-file positions in an office-park heaven. Because he lived such a mundane life, Andrea—one of God’s main subordinates and the officer in charge of John’s file—informs him that his case for getting into heaven is on shaky ground. In a show of benevolence, however, God and his team agree to give John a do-over, returning him to Earth in the form of an infant named Peter but giving him a strict timeline of “40-years to find a wife, a family, and a good job to support them” and, of course, none of his memories from his past life or of his time in heaven. This novel begins with a fun, tongue-in-cheek romp through the afterlife—a diverting, if familiar, concept. However, it fails to maintain its momentum. Duffy’s prose is strongest in the managerial world of heaven; the scenes there feel lively, with tongue-in-cheek idioms like “the big guy,” referring to God, and John’s entire life slimmed down to a small file (“I read it quickly but know all the details very well,” Andrea blithely remarks). Yet the depiction of heaven is just a framing device for what is ultimately a predictable and rather preachy tale. John-as-Peter fumbles through life, working at a dead-end job in a Catholic high school and failing to make meaningful romantic connections—until he meets Teresa, a stereotypical sex worker with a heart of gold, with whom he starts to form an earnest relationship. Although the narrative has a ticking clock, the story of Peter’s life and hopeful redemption is just as unengaging as John’s previous existence. The often stilted prose in these sections doesn’t help, nor does the character’s post-reincarnation proselytizing, although more devout readers may warm to this novel’s religious overtones.
An awkwardly executed work with a by-the-numbers plot.Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 979-8-71-898467-5
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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