Rayfiel’s novel creates an ominous sense of the evil that men are capable of doing, but its tonal shifts sometimes trip it...
Rayfiel’s novel blends the pulpy with the philosophical as it tells the story of the isolated life of an imprisoned murderer.
Ethan Harms, protagonist and narrator of this unsettling novel, is not a pleasant man. He’s a murderer imprisoned in a Supermax facility alongside other murderers—including one whose book about his killings has made him a minor celebrity—and his interactions with the prison staff, his fellow inmates, and an academic studying the acts of killers make up the bulk of the novel. The book that results finds an uneasy balance between evoking an unquiet mind cut off from the rest of the world and narrating a series of over-the-top scenes of violence. Early on, for instance, one of Ethan’s fellow prisoners kills a man by spinning his head halfway around. Slowly, a number of plot threads take shape: The prison’s warden seeks Ethan’s assistance in obtaining information about an unsolved murder from another prisoner; the academic attempts to get Ethan to reckon with his past deeds; and Ethan attempts to unravel what has happened to his mother outside the prison walls. Rayfiel creates a powerful sense of isolation: As one character quips about the prisoners, “It’s like you’re in Plato’s cave or something.” But the tone wavers somewhat, and some suggestions late in the novel that Ethan may have experienced hallucinations—and thus may not be the most reliable of narrators—add an unwelcome layer of ambiguity to the proceedings. At times, the novel seems interested in exploring the toxic masculinity and broken upbringings of its characters and the horrific consequences of their actions; at others, it opts for a more grindhouse approach.
Rayfiel’s novel creates an ominous sense of the evil that men are capable of doing, but its tonal shifts sometimes trip it up along the way.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-57962-534-4
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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