A violent and funny, if uneven, adventure that leaves no one safe.
A supernatural novel—set in Massachusetts—focuses on a cruel band of mythical warriors.
Pukwudgees, “small Indians of ancient legend,” may be about the height of a child, yet they are far from harmless. After some Pukwudgees venture through a magical hole in the ground, they wind up in the year 1992. The place is New Seabury, a coastal community on Cape Cod. It is a town for summer getaways for some and full time living for others. But with Pukwudgees on the loose with weapons, it is a horrible place to be. Anyone in their path is wounded. Negotiation is not an option. Never mind what these monsters will do once a person has been felled. Back in 1968, a group of boys from different backgrounds discovered the hole as a “doorway through time.” Their curiosity allowed them to visit with a supposed witch from the 1700s named Sarah Screecham. This event also unleashed the Pukwudgees on the unsuspecting people of the future. Can the boys go back in time and prevent this catastrophe from occurring? They’ll have a lot of work to do before August 1992. Cunis’ bloody, bizarre story is at its best (and most brutal) when it concentrates on the Pukwudgees. These evil creatures follow a kill-now, ask-questions-later policy. Yet they still have a humorous bent. As warriors, they are forever on the warpath. They see the vehicles of 1992 as beasts with “crystal eyes.” The fact that these beings are not very big in stature adds to the dark comedy. Somewhat less enthralling are the time-traveling boys. Readers will learn much about their backstories, though the details are not particularly imaginative. For instance, Timmy O’Rielly is from Boston and his brother has connections to the mob. The gangsters say bland things like “Pay back’s a bitch.” This type of information pales in comparison to the thrills and chills of mythical marauders terrorizing everyone in their path.
A violent and funny, if uneven, adventure that leaves no one safe.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2022
ISBN: 979-8408046478
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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