Appealing middle-grade fantasy that doesn’t condescend; should appeal to young readers craving sci-fi adventure that is both...
A 13-year-old boy and 14-year-old girl are pulled into an unexpected quest to save the universe in Ammerman’s (Anteater-Boy, 2011) comic fantasy for young readers.
When Wilkin Delgado’s dad leaves, his mom’s friend Marie and her daughter, Alice Jane, move in with them. Shortly afterward, in order to supplement their income, Wilkin finds himself having to move out of his old room so that his mom can rent it out. Their first lodger is a strange old man named Cardamon Webb, whose arrival coincides with a number of other weird events, such as piles of dust bunnies appearing out of nowhere and the moon disappearing. Shortly thereafter, Cardamon reveals himself to the kids as a “plumber”—not an ordinary one, however, but someone whose job it is to plug up all of the holes in the universe when problems occur, such as demons from other dimensions bleeding through into our world. He enlists Wilkin and Alice Jane’s help to restore everything to normal. Ammerman structures this clever, engaging story as a series of alternating first-person chapters narrated by Wilkin and Alice Jane, each with a strong voice whose authenticity and humor provide a sharp, deliberate contrast to the novel’s funny, fantastical occurrences. In a refreshing change of pace from the norm, these two kids, who dislike each other from the start, don’t grow to become friends by the end, which helps underscore the story’s playful bite. Over its course, characters such as Cardamon and another plumber, Philbus Trot, introduce the children to a charmingly apocalyptic mythology including the Gutrog, a terrifying reptilian creature who is the harbinger of the end times, and the Greater and Lesser Ma-Loos, other dark signs who are nonetheless apparently “cute.” This surprising tour through the universe may lack the satirical sophistication of Douglas Adams, but it often calls to mind his whimsy and comedic juxtaposition of the cosmic and the mundane.
Appealing middle-grade fantasy that doesn’t condescend; should appeal to young readers craving sci-fi adventure that is both pleasingly oddball and intelligently silly.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-0984682232
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Kabloona
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Let’s hope for more from the next book set in this world.
Sasha Cadell has survived against all odds, holding onto her loved ones and strangers as they take their last breaths—and that’s why she’s known as Death’s Angel.
For six years Sasha has lived in Haven, the underground society built to withstand nuclear war. Since the war, since her family’s deaths, since discovering she doesn’t get sick like everyone else does, Sasha’s life has been full of death and overfull with grief. While working in the Ward, Haven’s limited hospital, she stays with patients as they die. When Tristian Hayes, a unit commander of the Force, ends up as her patient, hanging on for his life, she pleads for him to stay alive. He does—upending her bleak ritual as Death’s Angel. Hoping to forget everything she’s seen and to numb the pain, Sasha leaves the Ward in favor of a role with a pickax, expanding Haven’s tunnels. Tristian, fiercely determined and stunningly stubborn, recruits Sasha to the Force for a vital mission aboveground. The story picks up steam with Sasha’s intense training to become the medic for Tristian’s tightknit unit. Together, they bear the weight of their unit’s survival and all that’s left of humankind. While in training, Sasha struggles to discern friends and enemies, but nothing is as challenging as facing her own demons. In this prequel to her debut novel, Conform (2025), Sullivan tries to accomplish a lot with both the worldbuilding and plot machinations, resulting in a convoluted story and flattened characters. The plot doesn’t have a satisfying payoff, but the romantic tension between Sasha and Tristian will keep readers engaged.
Let’s hope for more from the next book set in this world.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091027
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
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