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ETERNITY

An engaging love story that’s relatable, despite the enigmatic forces at play.

A couple’s romance may hinge on otherworldly beings in this supernaturally tinged novel.

Two “ethereal creatures” in human form relax at a cafe in Paris. As one of them is bored, they decide to play a game with two humans—a man and a woman in the New York metropolitan area. The man is an author who teaches a writing class (“Often, his students pitch” their stories, “claiming they aren’t writers. He always responds with the fingerprint argument: perspective is unique. The difference is craft, practice, and the balls to finish”). He has just ended an on-again, off-again relationship, perhaps for the final time. His best friend is an Eastern European expatriate and divorced woman with two kids. The unnamed pals confide in each other and even dish about their dating lives. Introducing sex into their relationship is brand new and not opposed by the pair. When it looks as if they’re officially a couple, the woman worries whether her friend can commit; maybe he’s not yet over his ex. Perhaps, she is merely a diversion. Before apathy sets in, the ethereal beings spice up their game with a “test” to prove whether there’s something profound between the friends or if their love is fleeting. Carlos limits the narrative details in this romance. Names, for example, are largely absent, and certain specifics, like the man’s ex and anything about the woman’s children, remain vague. But their growing closeness offers more than enough fuel for the story. The author deftly captures the allure of a new romance—that exhilarating first kiss and the ensuing days eying a phone for a text or call. It’s likewise entertaining to see the duo’s dating prospects or lack thereof. Male strangers hit on the woman constantly, delivering tributes that rarely seem genuine, and the man gets himself entangled in a casual relationship that he tries gracefully to break off. Meanwhile, the mysterious, nonhuman Parisian entities, who eventually transport to other places, appear intermittently. Whatever they’re planning isn’t clear until the end, though it’s definitely worth the wait.

An engaging love story that’s relatable, despite the enigmatic forces at play.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 979-8218139490

Page Count: 216

Publisher: MACHIAVELLI PRODUCTIONS LLC

Review Posted Online: Sept. 24, 2023

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WITCHCRAFT FOR WAYWARD GIRLS

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

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HIDDEN PICTURES

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

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