Loaded with commentary, word definitions and story expansions, this fantastic debut young adult novel is a fast-moving,...
A displaced 12-year-old finds magic and adventure right in his new backyard.
Karl’s summer break isn’t shaping up to be as much fun as he had hoped. When his father is betrayed by a business partner, the family has to sell everything in order to pay off the debts incurred by the resulting lawsuits. Forced out of their luxurious San Francisco home, the family moves to a broken-down ranch house nestled in an Arizonan canyon near Tucson. The relocation puts a terrible strain on the family and the parents argue the whole way there. The only bright spot is that Aunt Kathy allows the family to live there rent-free. Karl, his brother and their parents begin the long process of cleaning and restoring the ranch home and soon discover that things are not as they seem. Karl discovers writing in a spider web but chalks it up to too many hours spent in front of his computer exploring virtual worlds, worlds he won’t be revisiting anytime soon under the family’s new restrictive budget. Next, Karl receives a dire warning from a neighborhood boy, which makes him wonder all the more about his new home. But when Karl meets a talking spider and sees an old woman’s face in his window, he is absolutely convinced that strange forces are at work. Soon Karl teams up with Mary, a spider who was once a girl. With only an old magic spell book and their wits and imagination to guide them, Karl and Mary battle Vira the Witch in order to defend their canyon home, return Mary to her human form and save Karl’s family. For in this Tucson canyon, stripped of material distractions, Karl’s family has forged a bond worth fighting a dragon and enchanted bats for.
Loaded with commentary, word definitions and story expansions, this fantastic debut young adult novel is a fast-moving, magical, action-adventure story that unobtrusively passes along a few lessons on how to disengage from the virtual world and develop solid values.Pub Date: June 2, 2009
ISBN: 978-1442156555
Page Count: 294
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.
Hung out to dry by the elders who betrayed them, a squad of pregnant teens fights back with old magic.
Hendrix has a flair for applying inventive hooks to horror, and this book has a good one, chock-full with shades of V.C. Andrews, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Foxfire, to name a few. Our narrator, Neva Craven, is 15 and pregnant, a fate worse than death in the American South circa 1970. She’s taken by force to Wellwood House in Florida, a secretive home for unwed mothers where she’s given the name Fern. She’ll have the baby secretly and give it up for adoption, whether she likes it or not. Under the thumb of the house’s cruel mistress, Miss Wellwood, and complicit Dr. Vincent, Neva forges cautious alliance with her fellow captives—a new friend, Zinnia; budding revolutionary Rose; and young Holly, raped and impregnated by the very family minister slated to adopt her child. All seems lost until the arrival of a mysterious bookmobile and its librarian, Miss Parcae, who gives the girls an actual book of spells titled How To Be a Groovy Witch. There’s glee in seeing the powerless granted some well-deserved payback, but Hendrix never forgets his sweet spot, lacing the story with body horror and unspeakable cruelties that threaten to overwhelm every little victory. In truth, it’s not the paranormal elements that make this blast from the past so terrifying—although one character evolves into a suitably scary antagonist near the end—but the unspeakable, everyday atrocities leveled at children like these. As the girls lose their babies one by one, they soon devote themselves to secreting away Holly and her child. They get some help late in the game but for the most part they’re on their own, trapped between forces of darkness and society’s merciless judgement.
A pulpy throwback that shines a light on abuses even magic can’t erase.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9780593548981
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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