A morbid and offbeat fantasy tale.
Debut author Packwood presents a dark fantasy novel about a cruel world, narrated by a peculiar observer.
The story begins with human protagonist Maal being pierced by a long needle. Initially, neither he nor the reader is entirely sure what’s happening to him, although it’s clearly unpleasant. After some description of messy scenery involving an “ominous tower,” castration, and numerous corpses, Maal blacks out and is soon transported to another place entirely, where he sees a chained, human woman named Jil being sexually assaulted by a hairy creature called a Goor, while other Goor watch. Fortunately for Jil, there are also Stonewalkers present—tall, humanoid female creatures who are servants to the Goor—and one of them saves her. Maal, however, isn’t physically present in the world that he observes. No one can hear or see him, and he can’t touch anything; he also finds that he’s somehow tethered to Jil, who turns out to be the only being who can hear him speak. He finds himself drawn to the Stonewalkers, while mocking, disembodied voices in his head offer him explanations and commentary. The graphically violent initial pages will be difficult for some readers to get through, and over-the-top descriptions—such as one of an ax with “its weight fearsome, its edges sharp and unmarred”—are par for the course in this novel. After the main narrative gets started, though, the author slowly offers revelations about Maal and his world that will keep dark fantasy fans engaged. The suspense is kept taut as conflicts threaten to erupt; the Stonewalkers and Jil hate the Goor, and a mighty being with red eyes named Tchurn, who sleeps in a fireplace, expresses a desire to kill Jil. But why is Maal in this strange world, and why would Jil warrant a death sentence? Readers will keep turning pages to find answers to these and other questions. Certain scenes, such as one recounting the fate of Jil’s clan, feel repetitive, but overall, this is a gruesome yet compelling adventure.
A morbid and offbeat fantasy tale.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-943844-83-8
Page Count: 237
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.
Another surprise from an author who never writes the same novel twice.
Though Whitehead has earned considerable critical acclaim for his earlier work—in particular his debut (The Intuitionist, 1999) and its successor (John Henry Days, 2001)—he’ll likely reach a wider readership with his warmest novel to date. Funniest as well, though there have been flashes of humor throughout his writing. The author blurs the line between fiction and memoir as he recounts the coming-of-age summer of 15-year-old Benji Cooper in the family’s summer retreat of New York’s Sag Harbor. “According to the world, we were the definition of paradox: black boys with beach houses,” writes Whitehead. Caucasians are only an occasional curiosity within this idyll, and parents are mostly absent as well. Each chapter is pretty much a self-contained entity, corresponding to a rite of passage: getting the first job, negotiating the mysteries of the opposite sex. There’s an accident with a BB gun and plenty of episodes of convincing someone older to buy beer, but not much really happens during this particular summer. Yet by the end of it, Benji is well on his way to becoming Ben, and he realizes that he is a different person than when the summer started. He also realizes that this time in his life will eventually live only in memory. There might be some distinctions between Benji and Whitehead, though the novelist also spent his youthful summers in Sag Harbor and was the same age as Benji in 1985, when the novel is set. Yet the first-person narrator has the novelist’s eye for detail, craft of character development and analytical instincts for sharp social commentary.
Not as thematically ambitious as Whitehead’s earlier work, but a whole lot of fun to read.Pub Date: April 28, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-52765-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2009
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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