The mystery, which involves transitional characters in the series, heats up only at the very end, making it hard to get more...
A traveler accompanied by the wisecracking figure of Death struggles to put her past behind her as she investigates new friends in a little Idaho town.
Ever since the sudden demises of her husband and young son some years ago, Casey Maldonado has been literally haunted by Death. Though she’s tried to put her life back together, even trying to commit to Eric VanDiepenbos, her new boyfriend, she’s not ready to start living and wonders whether a road trip might help her find inner peace. While journeying through rural Idaho, she’s roughed up by some young men who don’t reckon with her knowledge of Hapkido. Acknowledging that she can’t continue on until she’s healed, Casey winds up getting a job and leasing an apartment from Armstrong general store owner Vern Daily. Vern was born and raised in the small town; his wife, Dottie Hass, came from outside—a fact none of the townspeople have ever let them forget, especially not Ethel Bernard, the woman everyone thought Vern would marry. It feels to Casey as if Vern and Dottie pay a daily penance, dealing with harassment and vandalism from town residents who blame Dottie for the death of her infant daughter years ago. Though Casey feels protective of the Dailys, she shies away from Dottie, who’s obviously in her final illness. In hopes of stopping some of the bullying, Casey digs into the history of the animosity, learning that something may have happened on a Halloween night many years ago, though she can’t get a straight answer about just what happened or who’s to blame. The figure of Death, which has changed personalities throughout this series (Dying Echo, 2012, etc.), seems divided this time between assisting Casey and trying on movie personalities for one-liners, as if Clemens still hasn’t settled on a role that fits the unearthly creature.
The mystery, which involves transitional characters in the series, heats up only at the very end, making it hard to get more invested in the heroine’s life than she seems to be.Pub Date: Aug. 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4642-0988-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: May 14, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2018
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.
A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.
Linus Baker loves rules, which makes him perfectly suited for his job as a midlevel bureaucrat working for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, where he investigates orphanages for children who can do things like make objects float, who have tails or feathers, and even those who are young witches. Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. When Extremely Upper Management sends for Linus, he learns that his next assignment is a mission to an island orphanage for especially dangerous kids. He is to stay on the island for a month and write reports for Extremely Upper Management, which warns him to be especially meticulous in his observations. When he reaches the island, he meets extraordinary kids like Talia the gnome, Theodore the wyvern, and Chauncey, an amorphous blob whose parentage is unknown. The proprietor of the orphanage is a strange but charming man named Arthur, who makes it clear to Linus that he will do anything in his power to give his charges a loving home on the island. As Linus spends more time with Arthur and the kids, he starts to question a world that would shun them for being different, and he even develops romantic feelings for Arthur. Lambda Literary Award–winning author Klune (The Art of Breathing, 2019, etc.) has a knack for creating endearing characters, and readers will grow to love Arthur and the orphans alongside Linus. Linus himself is a lovable protagonist despite his prickliness, and Klune aptly handles his evolving feelings and morals. The prose is a touch wooden in places, but fans of quirky fantasy will eat it up.
A breezy and fun contemporary fantasy.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-21728-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
PERSPECTIVES
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.
Book 2 of Hearne's latest fantasy trilogy, The Seven Kennings (A Plague of Giants, 2017), set in a multiracial world thrust into turmoil by an invasion of peculiar giants.
In this world, most races have their own particular magical endowment, or “kenning,” though there are downsides to trying to gain the magic (an excellent chance of being killed instead) and using it (rapid aging and death). Most recently discovered is the sixth kenning, whose beneficiaries can talk to and command animals. The story canters along, although with multiple first-person narrators, it's confusing at times. Some characters are familiar, others are new, most of them with their own problems to solve, all somehow caught up in the grand design. To escape her overbearing father and the unreasoning violence his kind represents, fire-giant Olet Kanek leads her followers into the far north, hoping to found a new city where the races and kennings can peacefully coexist. Joining Olet are young Abhinava Khose, discoverer of the sixth kenning, and, later, Koesha Gansu (kenning: air), captain of an all-female crew shipwrecked by deep-sea monsters. Elsewhere, Hanima, who commands hive insects, struggles to free her city from the iron grip of wealthy, callous merchant monarchists. Other threads focus on the Bone Giants, relentless invaders seeking the still-unknown seventh kenning, whose confidence that this can defeat the other six is deeply disturbing. Under Hearne's light touch, these elements mesh perfectly, presenting an inventive, eye-filling panorama; satisfying (and, where appropriate, well-resolved) plotlines; and tensions between the races and their kennings to supply much of the drama.
A charming and persuasive entry that will leave readers impatiently awaiting the concluding volume.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-345-54857-3
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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