A rampaging read with memorable characters that proves to be a promising first installment of a planned series.
In this rollicking debut novel, Hamlet successfully transforms bureaucratic infighting into an apocalyptic struggle between good and evil.
At the heart of the action is Anna Wei, a member of the National Security Agency’s Division of Unconventional Weaponry and Tactics, a kind of supernatural SWAT team. Like too many young women in the Washington, D.C., area, Wei is married to her job, although she hooks up occasionally with a striking half-vampire. Hers is not the healthiest lifestyle, as she and her Chaos squad mates employ black magic and enchanted weapons to battle the undead, such as ghouls and vampires. Her co-workers include an immortal and cursed paladin, a Nigerian shaman, a bookish shape-shifter, a brilliant, cranky wizard, and an inept summoner. DUWAT members often find themselves at odds with the “Churchies,” such as the Department of Defense’s Defense Intelligence Agency, who use white magic to combat similar paranormal threats. Both secret groups are soon targeting Ethan Morgan, a former Chaos agent who is now using death magic. Morgan is seeking revenge for the death of his younger brother, a soldier killed in a secret DOD “Perfect Cleansing,” and he doesn’t care who else dies in the process. He has an intricate plan to make himself so powerful that all the forces of good can’t stop him. The novel focuses on the search for Morgan and leads to a pitched conflagration at Arlington National Cemetery from which few walk away unscathed. Hamlet, an admitted, longtime slinger of red tape, does a masterful job of transforming mundane bureaucracy into a supernatural battleground. He has ably fused the disparate genres of political thriller and zombie apocalypse into one book that will satisfy fans of either—no mean feat. Best of all, Hamlet has set himself up to write more such tantalizing hybrids.
A rampaging read with memorable characters that proves to be a promising first installment of a planned series.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484862698
Page Count: 312
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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