A fun, sometimes over-the-top blend of SF, horror, and fantasy that should satisfy fans of all three.
Connelly takes readers on a wild ride through the near future as humans struggle to survive disaster in this speculative thriller.
An asteroid hits Earth, taking out Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Nevada, creating a “new continental divide” in southern California. Subsequent tremors make California an official “No-Go Zone,” and most residents flee north. But Max Walker, a widower still reeling from the death of his wife, Charlene, remains, alongside his elderly scientist parents, Cathy and Andy, as part of a group of 110 people participating in “Project Z.” Hidden in the canyons of California, this group attempts to discover an antidote to Zworsky’s vaccine—a miracle drug that promised to cure people of all sickness and disease but was discovered to grant some users the ability to fly. Now called Metas, these flying humans consider “Terries” (short for “Terrestrials,” meaning nonflyers) their mortal enemies. When Max becomes an accidental stowaway and winds up at the Metas’ home base in Los Angeles International Airport, he meets Darlene Verity, a Meta who slowly comes to believe that not all Terries are bad. As time runs out to help the Metas (whose life spans are shortened by their condition), Max and Darlene team up to fight enemies on all sides—including “Creepers,” zombielike Metas who are believed to be a product of horrific scientific experimentation: “The Creepers were like ghost figures, as she could not make out their faces, just those piercing eyes underneath those dirty bandages.” An eerie backstory combined with raucous action makes this novel an entertaining romp, with more serious themes of scientific responsibility, loss, and the nature of humanity thrown in for good measure. There are uses of profanity scattered throughout the text, but the novel never dips too heavily into overtly graphic depictions of gore or violence. Quick but steady pacing leads to an ambiguous ending that sets up the forthcoming second installment of the Zworsky’s Children series.
A fun, sometimes over-the-top blend of SF, horror, and fantasy that should satisfy fans of all three.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 399
Publisher: Madness Productions
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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