A thematically and visually potent adventure with a strong cast.
This middle-grade sequel sees a girl, her heroic friends, and the animal kingdom fight against a hospital hungry for victims.
The year is 1908, and 12-year-old Chloe Ashton has awoken in an impossibly comfy bed. The bed is in a treehouse built by the dashing Brisco Knot, and she can hear her friend Mrs. Goodweather making breakfast. This idyllic morning follows the tragic events that separated her from her parents. And nearby, through the Oregon woods, an evil hospital thrives. Its ambulances race the countryside, raiding homes and bringing people back for murderous treatment. Chloe and her friends, including a white rat named Shakespeare, plan to break into the hospital and shut it down. Meanwhile, Lord Winchfillin and the Artist—who won Chloe in a card game from her horrid Uncle Blake—travel toward “the great silver mountain, Wy’east.” There, the vast animal kingdom shall meet and listen to Silas the Stargazer, a legendary hermit with whom the stars speak. His address, to predators and prey alike, will hopefully muster a force to stop humanity from inflicting permanent damage on the world. And is there any hope of rebuilding the Bridge of the Gods, to reconnect the lands of the north and south? In her novel, Rios (Bridge of the Gods, 2017) brings chaos—but also healing—to a sprawling cast of humans and talking animals. Characters like King Auberon, who’s a gigantic bear, lend mythic grandeur to the narrative, and there’s a sylvan lyricism in their depiction (“Small twigs and several dead bees fell out of his fur, and the smell of fish was stronger than ever”). Throughout, the author emphasizes how everything—and everyone—in nature is connected. When Chloe receives praise on a job well done, she says, “It was my friends too.” And readers should note that the story begins with the constellations Cygnus and Scorpius warning Earth of danger. Despite some frightening battle scenes, the finale is a joyous affair. Further escapades starring a teen Chloe would be welcome.
A thematically and visually potent adventure with a strong cast.Pub Date: June 4, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63152-545-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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