A grand and evocative Amazon tale; the ending should leave readers restless for a sequel.
Twins—one blessed, one cursed—come of age independently before an impending war and their parts in a prophecy ultimately reunite them in this debut fantasy.
Amazon queen Elektra’s resistance to the temptations of male flesh earns her immortality from Goddess Hera, who won a wager on gender superiority against Zeus. Centuries later, Zeus, by way of trickery, seduces Elektra, and Hera vows to curse the unborn child. Elektra births fraternal twins; she blesses firstborn Thea and entrusts her to mystic Seema, but Hera, witnessing the second child’s delivery, curses the infant to a life of hardship. Thea spends her years in an Amazon tribe, training to become a Sondra, the fiercest of warriors. Meanwhile, readers are introduced to Teigra, who lives as a slave and suffers atrocities, primarily at the hands of men, whom she grows to despise and distrust. Seema finally tells Thea of her destiny (which surprisingly entails a twin) —to become the next Amazon queen by seeking the Golden Girdle, a powerful belt Elektra left behind that will soon be in an evil king’s possession. That king is surely Prince Zarek of the city-state of Argos, whose affinity for cruelty and murder could mean war if he sits upon the throne. Despite shades of Wonder Woman, Ben-Yochanan’s epic tale, the first in a series, has more in common with Game of Thrones. It’s relentlessly violent, sometimes involving Teigra’s brutal retaliation for beatings or much worse. A few of those acts cast her in the role of antihero, a fitting addition to the strong, diverse female characters, including Laria, the tribal queen’s granddaughter who dislikes Thea, and Melia, Thea’s potential love interest. “Men are all pigs,” Teigra says, which is certainly true for most of the ones here; unfortunately, their general interchangeability makes them predictable (depraved desires are immediately evident). Notwithstanding the story’s bleakness, the prose melds into unassuming poetry: sex may be “exploration, pure and simple,” but it’s not “any less satisfying and sweet.”
A grand and evocative Amazon tale; the ending should leave readers restless for a sequel.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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