An entertaining, well-crafted debut that challenges humankind’s stewardship of the planet.
A woman begins a strange new life after a personal tragedy in Jones’ debut paranormal thriller.
Samantha is a second grade teacher living in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, Charlie, and two teenage children, Lexi and Kevin, during a dangerous time. People from every walk of life, but especially nuclear families, are being attacked on a global scale, and no one knows who—or what—is doing it: “Not a single eyewitness was ever found. Not one security camera caught video of an attack.” Curfews, empty supermarkets, and military patrols are commonplace. When the three-week siege abruptly ends, 6 million people are dead. Later, Sam’s family decides to go camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they have a deadly encounter with a bear protecting her cub. Afterward, Sam awakens in a cave, tended by stern men and wolflike canines. A man named Grondi says that Charlie and Lexi died but that Kevin’s recuperating in another cave. Sam has devastating spinal injuries, but her hosts insist she’ll soon heal. The secretive group, called the Chosen, has elected to adopt Sam and Kevin during their Time of Prophecy, in which an “unseen storm” will wreak havoc on humanity’s “unstable biome.” But will Sam be able to stomach the Chosen’s plans? Jones’ novel uniquely blends discussion of the natural world with werewolf fantasy, as when Grondi urges Sam to reevaluate blaming the bears for her family members' deaths: “Both you and the mother bear did what you felt was right.” Sam’s dreams of hunting prey effectively foreshadow her own physical transformation; however, she learns that the familiar humanoid werewolf form is “outlawed” by the Chosen because it “blends the worst traits from both species.” Grondi also sharply critiques Sam’s former society, saying, “Only humans could create a contrivance where the few must be supported by the many.” However, Sam gets a chance to renew her happiness with Nechek, a male Chosen, and by teaching again. A grand, dark secret lies at the center of the Chosen’s existence, providing fertile ground for a sequel.
An entertaining, well-crafted debut that challenges humankind’s stewardship of the planet.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64663-456-9
Page Count: 284
Publisher: Koehler Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.
Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic about an orphan girl with visionary powers in plague-devastated France.
The year is 1348. The conflict between France and England is nothing compared to the all-out war building between good angels and fallen ones for control of heaven (though a scene in which soldiers are massacred by a rainbow of arrows is pretty horrific). Among mortals, only the girl, Delphine, knows of the cataclysm to come. Angels speak to her, issuing warnings—and a command to run. A pack of thieves is about to carry her off and rape her when she is saved by a disgraced knight, Thomas, with whom she teams on a march across the parched landscape. Survivors desperate for food have made donkey a delicacy and don't mind eating human flesh. The few healthy people left lock themselves in, not wanting to risk contact with strangers, no matter how dire the strangers' needs. To venture out at night is suicidal: Horrific forces swirl about, ravaging living forms. Lethal black clouds, tentacled water creatures and assorted monsters are comfortable in the daylight hours as well. The knight and a third fellow journeyer, a priest, have difficulty believing Delphine's visions are real, but with oblivion lurking in every shadow, they don't have any choice but to trust her. The question becomes, can she trust herself? Buehlman, who drew upon his love of Fitzgerald and Hemingway in his acclaimed Southern horror novel, Those Across the River (2011), slips effortlessly into a different kind of literary sensibility, one that doesn't scrimp on earthy humor and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors. The power of suggestion is the author's strong suit, along with first-rate storytelling talent.
An author to watch, Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-937007-86-7
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Ace/Berkley
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2012
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