Barney and The Piggy are back in this long-awaited, delightfully icky sequel to Interstellar Pig (1995). The aliens have left in pursuit of The Piggy, but Barney still has the Interstellar Pig board game they abandoned in their haste. He’s been playing the game with his new friends: another 16-year-old named Katie, an undergraduate named Matt, and a mysterious stranger named Julian. Barney thinks that the game is no longer dangerous, since the aliens have left Earth. Of course, the real game isn’t over at all. Julian kidnaps Barney, and reveals himself as a giant tapeworm parasite in a dinosaur-like creature with disgusting eating habits. Matt, it seems, is a giant parasitic wasp, who kidnaps Katie. Katie, at least, is actually human. This merry band descends on the planet J’koot in search of The Piggy. J’koot is the home of enormous crabs who reputedly find humans tastiest after slow and painful death (the crabs are distressed by their brutal reputation; in one hysterical scene, they escort their captives to a tastefully decorated spa for “marination therapy” in a pool filled with something like garlic and soy sauce). To complicate matters even further, Barney has a parasite—Madame Toxoplasma Gondii—living in a cyst in his brain; she needs Barney to be eaten by a giant crab in order to complete her lifecycle. Barney’s hilarious adventures are filled with gruesome detail, lovingly described. The presence of a few appealing secondary characters, which Interstellar Pig lacked, gives Barney’s new story freshness in its own right, and keeps it from being merely a sequel. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-525-46918-4
Page Count: 220
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2002
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart.
After praying to a Fate for help, Evangeline discovers the dangerous world of magic.
When her father passes away, Evangeline is left with her cold stepmother and kind but distant stepsister, Marisol. Despite inheriting a steady trust in magic, belief in her late mother’s homeland of the mystical North (where fantastical creatures live), and philosophy of hope for the future, her dreams are dashed when Luc, her love, pledges to marry Marisol instead. Evangeline desperately prays to the Prince of Hearts, a dangerous and fickle Fate famed for his heart that is waiting to be revived by his one true love—and his potentially lethal kisses. The bargain they strike sends her on a dark and magical journey throughout the land. The writing style fluctuates from clever and original to overly verbose and often confusing in its jumble of senses. While the pervasive magic and concept of the Fates as a religious system add interest, other fantasy elements are haphazardly incorporated without enough time devoted to building a cohesive world. However, the themes of love, the power of story, family influence, and holding onto belief are well rounded and add depth. The plot contains welcome surprises, and the large cast piques curiosity; readers will wish more time was spent getting to know them. Evangeline has rose-gold hair and, like other main characters, reads as White; there is diversity among the fantasy races in this world.
A lushly written story with an intriguing heart. (map) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26839-6
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly...
In a radical departure from her realistic fiction and comic chronicles of Anastasia, Lowry creates a chilling, tightly controlled future society where all controversy, pain, and choice have been expunged, each childhood year has its privileges and responsibilities, and family members are selected for compatibility.
As Jonas approaches the "Ceremony of Twelve," he wonders what his adult "Assignment" will be. Father, a "Nurturer," cares for "newchildren"; Mother works in the "Department of Justice"; but Jonas's admitted talents suggest no particular calling. In the event, he is named "Receiver," to replace an Elder with a unique function: holding the community's memories—painful, troubling, or prone to lead (like love) to disorder; the Elder ("The Giver") now begins to transfer these memories to Jonas. The process is deeply disturbing; for the first time, Jonas learns about ordinary things like color, the sun, snow, and mountains, as well as love, war, and death: the ceremony known as "release" is revealed to be murder. Horrified, Jonas plots escape to "Elsewhere," a step he believes will return the memories to all the people, but his timing is upset by a decision to release a newchild he has come to love. Ill-equipped, Jonas sets out with the baby on a desperate journey whose enigmatic conclusion resonates with allegory: Jonas may be a Christ figure, but the contrasts here with Christian symbols are also intriguing.
Wrought with admirable skill—the emptiness and menace underlying this Utopia emerge step by inexorable step: a richly provocative novel. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1993
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