by Tom Lombardo ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
Thoroughly engrossing historical fiction with dynamic characterizations.
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A young man finds himself stranded on foreign soil, where he encounters friendly townspeople and a hostile wizard, in this Neolithic-set debut novel.
After miraculously surviving a shipwreck, 17-year-old Kaja washes ashore on an apparently uninhabited island. He forages for food and later is surprised to see a young boy. This boy spots Kaja as well and sprints to his town, Ash, to tell folks what he’s seen. Though he describes Kaja as a “wild man” with matted, filthy hair—and dressed in rags—the boy’s friends Regis and Dogen discover a sickly figure who’s barely alive. They take him to Regis’ herbalist mother, Hypp, who nurses Kaja back to health. People in Ash and the neighboring settlements quickly accept the teen, despite his differences—they’re all White while Kaja’s skin is darker and adorned in tattoos. Kaja ultimately relays his story to the townsfolk (and readers): In his native land, men calling themselves Thurgans had enslaved him and his people, the Rishi. He and others escaped in a ship, but it seems only Kaja survived the ensuing wreck. Sadly, not everyone in Ash is amiable; the openly antagonistic wizard Sekh is convinced Kaja is a wizard, too, harboring “secret knowledge.” The villain plans on tormenting Kaja, including furtively drugging him, until the teen reveals his secret, which Sekh believes to be some form of magic. Even as Kaja insists he has no secret, the teen will have to complete a “mission” for Sekh if he wants the wizard to leave him in peace.
While offering an abundance of characters, Lombardo maintains a relatively simple plot. Language, for example, is rarely specified, and the dialogue appears in English like the narrative. At the same time, there’s a discernible, well-incorporated theme of discrimination, especially racial. Not only has Kaja fled slavery by the Thurgans, who are White, but some on the island deem him a “freak” or explicitly reference his cultural tattoos by calling him a “tattooed freak.” The protagonist is an appealing teen entirely out of his element; he makes musical instruments, and, as the Rishi have only tools, he’s shocked by the myriad weapons the townspeople sport. Among the extensive cast, Hypp shines brightest; she’s essentially Kaja’s surrogate mother. The compassionate woman soon considers him a son. The author’s prose is primarily unadorned but concise, with few notable instances of contemporary words or expressions. Narrative descriptions are eloquent, even when Kaja feels the effects of a hallucinogenic: “The mushroom was the perfect conduit, most perfectly enjoyed in solitude where the endless distractions and demands of society and other people were irrelevant. All that mattered to him on the trail, slowly advancing to nowhere, was the sight of a flower, or a dragonfly, or the light in the air.” Kaja’s story continues to intrigue into the final act, as he, with help from friends, tries evading Sekh’s frightening obsession. Similarly, there’s the fact that Kaja indeed has a secret, an unforgettable one that he doesn’t fully explain until much later in the book.
Thoroughly engrossing historical fiction with dynamic characterizations.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
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New York Times Bestseller
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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by Rebecca Yarros ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 2023
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
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