A supernatural fantasy impressive for its subtlety and Egyptian research.
In this debut fantasy, a young archaeologist struggles to decipher a temple’s puzzling hieroglyphics and his own paranormal talents.
The University of Chicago dispatches Alexander “Ramses” Smith—aka Lex—to study a temple in Egypt. Lex arrives via the Nile River in Esna, hoping to perform research valuable enough to secure his doctorate. The Temple of Khnum, however, has proved difficult for archaeologists to study because it’s filled with confusing, supposedly incoherent hieroglyphics. In the bare-bones apartment procured by the university, Lex wonders if professor Orridge has sent him on a fool’s errand. When Lex enters the temple, he acknowledges and explores a curious energy within. Lex’s teenage years were spent under the tutelage of a clairvoyant grandmother, who realized he had gifts worth nurturing, but he doesn’t want to rely on them here. Then, after touching the bas relief of a priest, he starts hearing disembodied voices, including one that says, “Time here looped, curving in upon itself.” Back at the apartment, he remembers the journal of Dr. Broderick Gillwood, which had been slated for destruction until he pilfered it from the university. In a shocking feat of synchronicity, Gillwood also studied the Temple of Khnum, which Lex soon discovers is inhabited by ancient demons called afrets. Merrick conjures a narrative reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft—not thanks to hideous creatures, but because Lex’s story travels inward, through his own paranoia and terror, as much as it moves forward. Esna and the temple itself, described in lavish detail, persist as characters more memorable than some of the people (like the grocer Malik) Lex meets; at one point, the temple “mesmerized with teeming dust particles that sparkled as flecks of tinfoil.” Merrick also displays immense knowledge of Egypt, comparing temples to spiritual batteries and telling readers that they “consisted of multiple structures built over a long period of time, which reflected the evolution of culture and beliefs.” Her greatest success, however, is in isolating the reader alongside her protagonist and toying with both psychologically.
A supernatural fantasy impressive for its subtlety and Egyptian research.Pub Date: March 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-6094-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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