This coming-of-age novel strives for maximum drama but stretches credibility.
Divorce, blackmail, love and murder collide in this complicated young-adult novel.
Caught in the middle of her parents’ messy split, 14-year-old Kate finds friendship and, eventually, her first love in charming, streetwise Lucky, who also comes from a broken family. Apart from Lucky, there is no safe haven for Kate, not even at Glenwood Junior High, where she becomes the target of violent sexual advances by Randy Johnson, a mentally disabled student whose behavior is inexplicably ignored by the school principal, and whose state-appointed lawyer seems more concerned with the intricacies of federal law than the well-being of either student. The principal, it turns out, is in league with a greedy real estate developer—who also happens to be the new boyfriend of Kate’s mother—and a complex plot emerges that involves corrupt public officials, blackmail and a shady land deal. While these nefarious bureaucratic doings may have been compelling in Keech’s first novel, The Crawlspace Conspiracy (1995), the subject matter is a reach for teen readers. The other prominent plotlines, unfortunately, also prove to be problematic. The characterization of Johnson, described by Kate as a “love-struck retard” and “jittery cretin” and vilified as a sex-hungry “moron” who “couldn’t even count to ten,” is at best an attempt to discuss stereotypes, but more often outright offensive. When Johnson is found shot to death near the school, the novel veers into a murder mystery that involves Kate and Lucky searching for Johnson’s supposed killer while falling under suspicion themselves. Add to the mix a teen pregnancy, accusations of incest, attempted suicide and neglectful parents who act more adolescent then their own teenagers, and there’s no shortage of drama and intrigue. What the novel is missing are authentic characters whose actions ring true.
This coming-of-age novel strives for maximum drama but stretches credibility.Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2011
ISBN: 978-0983699002
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Real Nice Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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