A safe, cozy adventure built on the solid foundations of everyday life and uncommon imagination.
Two teenagers’ friendship becomes tested while they hone their abilities in this third installment of a paranormal fantasy series.
Fourteen-year-olds Sadie Callahan and Jason Lex have special powers. Sadie is a Yowie (the Australian cousin of America’s Bigfoot) and can shift between human and animal form. Her Yowie heritage also enables her to heal quickly and turn invisible, although she’s yet to master this. Jason is a Rampart Guard, a fire-wielding warden of the barrier that keeps cryptids (Yowies, Yetis, etc.) hidden in the human world. Both Sadie and Jason are in training; whereas he embraces the changes he’s going through, she is less keen. Sadie has been chosen to lead the Yowies, but until she’s ready to face the current leader—the nefarious Garrison Devine—she remains in hiding and can pretend to live a normal life. This head-in-the-sand approach comes unstuck when a stray Bigfoot is seen around town. Sadie and Jason track it down, but when the Bigfoot turns out to be a Yowie—the same one that killed Sadie’s grandma—and Jason refuses to kill it, their bond of friendship is threatened. Will Sadie ever forgive him? And how will she cope when her mother, who everyone thought was killed when Sadie was a baby, comes back into her life? Terrien (The Clan Calling, 2017, etc.) writes in the third person, mixing narrative descriptions and dialogue to good effect. The teens and adults all have their quirks, but readers new to the series may struggle to keep track of the relationships. There are many characters, and they’re all a bit similar (in the sense that they remain good-natured and talk through their issues even when there’s friction). The plot, likewise, is very much a continuation of previous volumes. The complicated backstory goes largely unexplained, and the progression of the big picture is minimal. But while the current installment feels almost as if it’s treading water, its true beauty lies in the protagonists’ growth and the way they deal with ordinary teen issues (of which there are many). Rather than dazzle readers with big developments, the author anchors the paranormal elements and invites teens and adults alike to feel part of Sadie and Jason’s extended family.
A safe, cozy adventure built on the solid foundations of everyday life and uncommon imagination.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9983369-4-7
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Camashea Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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