Next book

SIBS

Small-scope horror tale set in Manhattan by the author of Reprisal (1991), Reborn (1990), and The Keep (1981). A diversion from Wilson's malignant-entity series (see Tessier, above), not to be confused with the new television sitcom Sibs. The twins Kara and Kelly Wade, once as pert and bright as the Doublemint Twins, are now into their thirties. They've parted. Kelly's a nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital in Greenwich Village, while Kara's home with a degree in women's studies, writing a feminist book. Kara fled Manhattan because, secretly pregnant with a Manhattan cop's baby and knowing the cop would never leave hateful New York, she's had their daughter, Jill, without telling him. Now Rob Harris, the cop, is a detective in Homicide and calls Kara to tell her that Kelly has fallen from the twelfth floor of the Plaza under grisly circumstances. Kara identifies her sister's vastly mutilated corpse, then uncovers a secret life around Kelly. Kelly had a multiple-personality disorder, according to her psychiatrist, Dr. Gates, and as ``Ingrid'' would put on a red- leather minidress, pick up men in the Plaza Hotel's Oak Bar, then, upstairs in her room, have sex with them gratis, often two at a time. During one of these scenes a lover bit her shoulder. The pain drove out Ingrid, and horrified Kelly found herself servicing two men and leaped through the window. Now, does Kara have the same personality disorder, produced by the same childhood trauma (incest with their father) that Kelly had revealed under hypnosis? Kara goes under hypnosis as well and indeed a new Kara, ``Janine,'' appears and starts writing notes to Kara. Janine, too, is a post midnight sexpot. But we quickly sense that Dr. Gates has faked the twins' disorder and is himself ``Ingrid'' and ``Janine''! Or is he, too, being directed by an evil entity? Kara's nine-year-old Jill, a budding feminist, has all the novel's best lines, especially when objecting to the cleavage in a Penthouse she finds in Rob's bathroom. Otherwise, standard stuff.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1991

ISBN: 0-913165-61-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1991

Categories:
Next book

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

Categories:
Next book

MAGIC HOUR

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

Categories:
Close Quickview