A satisfying continuation of a moody, stylish series.
Robertson (Strangers, 2018, etc.) returns to the adventures of First Nations teenager Cole Harper in this supernatural YA sequel.
Cole is still in Wounded Sky First Nation after helping to end a murder spree and cure a local epidemic in the previous series installment. He’s grieving the death of some friends, and he continues to struggle with anxiety. Luckily, he still has some pals to lean on: his classmates Eva and Brady, as well as Pam, a girl he’s just starting to get to know at his new school. Other acquaintances include Jayne, a teenage ghost who’s mysteriously gone missing; and Choch, a coyote spirit who appears to be Cole’s gym teacher. Cole doesn’t have much time to settle in at school before things start to get crazy again. A new terror is stalking Wounded Sky: a creature wandering Blackwood Forest at night, which locals are identifying as “Upayokwitigo.” “It means He Who Lives Alone in Cree,” explains Eva, although even getting people to say the name is difficult—it’s regarded as a curse. As Cole investigates the creature, he also tries to figure out why so many strangers are showing up at the local health clinic; he also wants to get to the bottom of what caused the accident that killed his father 10 years ago. Can Cole stare down the monsters that haunt him—from within and from without? Robertson’s prose effectively captures the magical balance of humor and spookiness that brings good supernatural fantasy novels to life. As a result, his lively characters are easy for readers to latch onto. At one point, for example, Brady amusingly grouses to Cole: “Every single person who’s seen that thing has seen it in the woods, at night. At night, which it is right now, and in the woods, which is where you’re talking about going.” The plot of this installment builds directly on that of the previous volume; this setup makes the beginning a little slow and sluggish, as old characters and animosities get reintroduced and rehashed. The ending, however, is so unexpected that readers will eagerly anticipate a third volume.
A satisfying continuation of a moody, stylish series.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-748-7
Page Count: 260
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Bulky, balky, talky.
In an updated quest for the Holy Grail, the narrative pace remains stuck in slo-mo.
But is the Grail, in fact, holy? Turns out that’s a matter of perspective. If you’re a member of that most secret of clandestine societies, the Priory of Sion, you think yes. But if your heart belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, the Grail is more than just unholy, it’s downright subversive and terrifying. At least, so the story goes in this latest of Brown’s exhaustively researched, underimagined treatise-thrillers (Deception Point, 2001, etc.). When Harvard professor of symbology Robert Langdon—in Paris to deliver a lecture—has his sleep interrupted at two a.m., it’s to discover that the police suspect he’s a murderer, the victim none other than Jacques Saumière, esteemed curator of the Louvre. The evidence against Langdon could hardly be sketchier, but the cops feel huge pressure to make an arrest. And besides, they don’t particularly like Americans. Aided by the murdered man’s granddaughter, Langdon flees the flics to trudge the Grail-path along with pretty, persuasive Sophie, who’s driven by her own need to find answers. The game now afoot amounts to a scavenger hunt for the scholarly, clues supplied by the late curator, whose intent was to enlighten Sophie and bedevil her enemies. It’s not all that easy to identify these enemies. Are they emissaries from the Vatican, bent on foiling the Grail-seekers? From Opus Dei, the wayward, deeply conservative Catholic offshoot bent on foiling everybody? Or any one of a number of freelancers bent on a multifaceted array of private agendas? For that matter, what exactly is the Priory of Sion? What does it have to do with Leonardo? With Mary Magdalene? With (gulp) Walt Disney? By the time Sophie and Langdon reach home base, everything—well, at least more than enough—has been revealed.
Bulky, balky, talky.Pub Date: March 18, 2003
ISBN: 0-385-50420-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2003
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