A historical novel about a Spanish conquistador’s invasion of Guatemala as narrated by three witnesses: a Mayan prince, the conquistador’s wife and a Dominican monk.
In 1524, Pedro de Alvarado entered Guatemala looking for riches; by 1529, he’d subdued the region, largely through wanton atrocities. This novel covers the period from Alvarado’s arrival through his death in 1541. The first narrator is Belehé, who tells the story of being a prince of the local Kaqchikel tribe and a longtime captive of the rival K’iché people. After he’s released, he rejoins his tribe, which is now allied with Alvarado against the K’iché. But the Spaniard’s excesses eventually lead the Kaqchikel to revolt and flee into the highlands. Belehé tells of the years just before and after Alvarado’s arrival, using the symbol-laden imagery of a culture with mysterious gods, and describes the destruction of his homeland in lyrical language (“And when they came, I was frightened, oh, my sons!...They came to warn us of the arrival of the gods”). The second narrator is Beatriz, Alvarado’s wife, whose tale is set during her husband’s governorship of Guatemala. As Spanish nobility, she looks down upon the natives while still recognizing their humanity. Her initial love for Alvarado turns to disgust as she sees what sort of man he is in the New World. The last narrator is Brother Domingo, whose superior, Father Bartolomé, is on a holy mission to convert the local natives. Domingo, torn between the duties of his faith and his own earthly needs, relates the last years of Alvarado’s life as the conquistador goes farther afield in search of glory and gold. Vlach, a practicing psychologist, has clearly done his research for this debut novel; the historical detail is impressive and the settings are vivid and realistic. However, the story doesn’t effectively build toward any sort of climax, which is unfortunate, given the rich material. There are also a few minor slip-ups: Meters are used as measures of distance about 150 years too early, the passage of time is hard to gauge, and the Spanish political situation could have been clearer.
An often enthralling look into a little-known period of history, but one that lacks the dramatic structure for maximum impact.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 246
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z (2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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