Some sharp, detailed writing elevates this deliberately paced, theologically driven story.
A therapist has an impromptu in-flight session with a man who purports to be the world’s first human being in Burgett’s Christian novel.
Psychologist Grace Jackson is delighted when her seat on a Dallas-to-Honolulu flight is upgraded to first class. Still, it’s an eight-hour trip; perhaps analyzing her initially mute seatmate will stave off boredom. It turns out this man’s apparent fear of flying isn’t the most curious thing about him, as he claims he’s Adam —the one from Eden. After he and Eve ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the man explains, he then ate from the Tree of Life; consequently, he never died. The man is tormented by his belief that he “messed up” this world and the fact that God has recently “gone quiet.” Of course, Grace doesn’t immediately accept that she’s sitting next to the original Adam, but she lets him vent as Adam tells of his and Eve’s exit from Eden, their sons Cain and Abel, and his best friend Jesus’ life and death on Earth. Burgett’s novel opens with some of its best scenes as Grace eyes fellow passengers in first class, from affectionate newlyweds to 80-year-old identical twin sisters who dress alike. But when Adam takes the narrative reins, he leisurely recounts biblical stories that Christian readers will already know. While his renderings (and the author’s concise prose) aptly simplify these tales, Adam often sounds as if he’s preaching rather than confiding in the doctor. (“Giving up our idols, and their trappings, is tough for anybody. It takes a lot of faith and desire to stay the course.”) The theme of faith is the throughline; even if Adam fears God isn’t there if the two aren’t regularly conversing. This novel is positioned as the start of a series, though it reads like a standalone work.
Some sharp, detailed writing elevates this deliberately paced, theologically driven story.Pub Date: July 4, 2024
ISBN: 9798990006416
Page Count: 316
Publisher: She Shed Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.
The master of supernatural disaster returns with four horror-laced novellas.
The protagonist of the title story, Holly Gibney, is by King’s own admission one of his most beloved characters, a “quirky walk-on” who quickly found herself at the center of some very unpleasant goings-on in End of Watch, Mr. Mercedes, and The Outsider. The insect-licious proceedings of the last are revisited, most yuckily, while some of King’s favorite conceits turn up: What happens if the dead are never really dead but instead show up generation after generation, occupying different bodies but most certainly exercising their same old mean-spirited voodoo? It won’t please TV journalists to know that the shape-shifting bad guys in that title story just happen to be on-the-ground reporters who turn up at very ugly disasters—and even cause them, albeit many decades apart. Think Jack Torrance in that photo at the end of The Shining, and you’ve got the general idea. “Only a coincidence, Holly thinks, but a chill shivers through her just the same,” King writes, “and once again she thinks of how there may be forces in this world moving people as they will, like men (and women) on a chessboard.” In the careful-what-you-wish-for department, Rat is one of those meta-referential things King enjoys: There are the usual hallucinatory doings, a destiny-altering rodent, and of course a writer protagonist who makes a deal with the devil for success that he thinks will outsmart the fates. No such luck, of course. Perhaps the most troubling story is the first, which may cause iPhone owners to rethink their purchases. King has gone a far piece from the killer clowns and vampires of old, with his monsters and monstrosities taking on far more quotidian forms—which makes them all the scarier.
Vintage King: a pleasure for his many fans and not a bad place to start if you’re new to him.Pub Date: April 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3797-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.
A disturbing household secret has far-reaching consequences in this dark, unusual ghost story.
Mallory Quinn, fresh out of rehab and recovering from a recent tragedy, has taken a job as a nanny for an affluent couple living in the upscale suburb of Spring Brook, New Jersey, when a series of strange events start to make her (and her employers) question her own sanity. Teddy, the precocious and shy 5-year-old boy she's charged with watching, seems to be haunted by a ghost who channels his body to draw pictures that are far too complex and well formed for such a young child. At first, these drawings are rather typical: rabbits, hot air balloons, trees. But then the illustrations take a dark turn, showcasing the details of a gruesome murder; the inclusion of the drawings, which start out as stick figures and grow increasingly more disturbing and sophisticated, brings the reader right into the story. With the help of an attractive young gardener and a psychic neighbor and using only the drawings as clues, Mallory must solve the mystery of the house's grizzly past before it's too late. Rekulak does a great job with character development: Mallory, who narrates in the first person, has an engaging voice; the Maxwells' slightly overbearing parenting style and passive-aggressive quips feel very familiar; and Teddy is so three-dimensional that he sometimes feels like a real child.
It's almost enough to make a person believe in ghosts.Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-81934-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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