A low-key but detailed introduction to a world of uncanny characters and creatures.
In Murphy’s debut, the first in a prospective supernatural series, people in a small town become entangled in an ongoing war between immortal beings.
At a glance, Wichita is a quiet, modest town near South Kansas City. Local truck driver Mark finally gathers up the courage to ask out Sharon, who works the counter at the one-stop shop he patronizes. Meanwhile, Mark’s friend Ron is at odds with his ex-convict brother, Tommy, who’s just finished a 15-year stint in prison. Other residents include reputedly immortal witches. Nearly 250 years ago, the area was the site of the Great War in which witches and human Hunters battled wolflike beasts called Jackals. That war officially ended, but the tension between the various beings continues to this day. Witches have tried to increase their numbers through recruitment, including reaching out to some people who aren’t aware they have witch bloodlines.Now, witches are contacting local residents, including Sharon’s parents, who may be at least part witch and have powerful abilities. Tracking down potential recruits is essential, as recent maulings of campers suggest that Riffs—vampire-Jackal hybrids—are in the vicinity and that all-out war may soon be returning to Kansas. Murphy’s novel is populated by myriad, vibrant characters with engrossing backstories. For example, Mark and his mother both suffered abuse at the hands of his alcoholic father, and readers eventually learn about the crime that sent Tommy away, which ties to other characters’ pasts. A prologue offers a hint of the Great War in 1782 and another section portrays witch recruitment in 1815, but most of the story consists of present-day characters in real-world predicaments. Frequent dialogue scenes give the narrative a consistent pace and are often informative, and although very little action occurs in this book, Murphy has plenty of material to develop in planned sequels.
A low-key but detailed introduction to a world of uncanny characters and creatures.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2020
ISBN: 979-8-55-349462-9
Page Count: 273
Publisher: Cosby Media Productions
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Screwy but scarrry!
Frightened by the “Other Mommy” in her bedroom closet who asks her, "Can I go into your heart?,” lonely 8-year-old Bela enters into a horrific waking nightmare involving her whole family.
Set in the fictional small town of Chaps, Michigan, near the other made-up places in dread specialist Malerman’s novels, the story involves a deeply troubled family. Bela’s actual mommy has been cheating on her father, Daddo, whose friendliness and good cheer clash with his wife’s dark streak. Wrapped up in their squabbling and work demands, they’ve neglected to pay attention to Bela. Sweetly seductive in the beginning, Other Mommy offers Bela, who blames herself for the whole mess, a solution. They will trade places, with the Babadook-like presence reincarnated in the girl, and the girl...who knows where she’ll go. “Whatever you do, most of all, don’t allow someone else’s meanness, someone else’s cruelty, to get inside of you,” Daddo lectures Bela. Soon enough, a screaming, shape-shifting version of Other Mommy is revealed to everyone, leading the family to run off to an assortment of supposedly safe places and bring in experts in the spirit business to get rid of Other Mommy. Leave it to Mom and Dad to get so caught up in their plight that they miss half of what Bela has to say. As a result of long monologues about secrets and lost innocence and such, the book loses some of its edge. And though Bela may well be little more than a stick figure by design, that deprives the novel of a deeper dimension. That said, Malerman keeps us in his grip, as he did in his best book, Bird Box (2014). The novel isn’t the original that Neil Gaiman’s Coraline is, but it still deserves a place alongside it on anyone’s Halloween bookshelf.
Screwy but scarrry!Pub Date: June 25, 2024
ISBN: 9780593723128
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.
More steampunk adventures of a samurai prognosticator, his clockwork octopus, and his human lovers.
Five years after her charming debut novel, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (2015), Pulley brings back the main characters for another scramble through the dangers and consequences of clairvoyance. Readers of the first book already know the big reveal: that Keita Mori—the eponymous London watchmaker—has an unusual memory that works both backward and forward. (Readers new to the series should put this book down and start with Watchmaker.) This time Pulley sets the action principally in Japan, where Mori; Thaniel Steepleton, a British translator and diplomat; Grace Carrow Matsumoto, a physicist; and Takiko Pepperharrow, a Kabuki actress and baroness, are working together to foil a samurai’s power grab and turn away a Russian invasion. At least, that’s what Mori’s doing; the others are rushing blindly down paths he’s laid out for them, which may or may not get them where he wants them to go. But if Mori knows what’s coming and what steps they can take to change the future, why doesn’t he just tell them what to do? The answer is half satisfying (because, as in any complicated relationship, communication isn’t always easy; because the characters have wills of their own and might not obey) and half irritating (because if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a story). Pulley’s witty writing and enthusiastically deployed steampunk motifs—clockwork, owls, a mechanical pet, Tesla-inspired electrical drama—enliven a plot that drags in the middle before rushing toward its explosive end. Perhaps more interesting than the plot are the relationships. The characters revolve through a complex pattern of marriages of passion and convenience, sometimes across and sometimes within genders and cultures, punctuated by jealousy and interesting questions about trust.
Although this sequel doesn’t break new ground, it will appeal strongly to fans of the first book.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63557-330-5
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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