A signature Cash creation, full of both mayhem and heart.
From the author of Pokergeist (2015) comes a tale of teenagers at a theme park featuring actual zombies, vampires, and werewolves.
A plague has swept the globe, creating hordes of slow, flesh-starved zombies. Although this infected populace is contained in camps, the world economy has shuddered to a halt. Enter Moldavian philanthropist Dr. Vincent Conrad, who builds Monsterland parks in seven nations (including France and China) where visitors can, in safe environments, witness zombies, elusive werewolves, and the last portion of the vampire race. In the United States, the small town of Cooper Valley, California, will host Monsterland in exchange for a fresh water supply, a new medical center, and repaved roads. Highway patrolman Carter White is leery of Conrad’s true intent, particularly his claim that he’ll eventually find a cure for the plague. On Monsterland’s opening night, Carter attends as part of the additional security detail for the president and other dignitaries, but he’s surprised to learn that his stepsons, 17-year-old Wyatt and 14-year-old Josh, have won free VIP passes. The boys, as well as their teenage classmates Melvin and Howard, are monster fanatics, so Carter reluctantly allows them to attend. But the more Conrad assures everyone that the park is completely safe, the more Carter prepares for chaos. Author Cash brings his buoyant mix of terror and humor to a tale of three major monsters of classic horror. His take on zombies, werewolves, and vampires, much like his previous take on ghosts, is rooted in warmly likable characters. For example, Carter’s desire to be seen by his stepsons as a true father figure is hampered by Wyatt’s admiration of Conrad; Wyatt himself struggles to win over Jade, his lovely classmate, who’s dating Nolan, the bullying quarterback. Meanwhile, Cash portrays vampires Raoul and Sylvie as hair-metal has-beens who end up performing in Conrad’s Vampire Village rock opera. At its heart, the narrative cautions against soulless exploitation; in the suburban attraction Zombieville, for example, guests “were paused, filming with their cell phones. Signs pulled at [Wyatt]—buy this, purchase that.” The adventure ramps up to an enjoyably gore-soaked finale.
A signature Cash creation, full of both mayhem and heart.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5171-8067-6
Page Count: 208
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.
Ten years after her teenage daughter went missing, a mother begins a new relationship only to discover she can't truly move on until she answers lingering questions about the past.
Laurel Mack’s life stopped in many ways the day her 15-year-old daughter, Ellie, left the house to study at the library and never returned. She drifted away from her other two children, Hanna and Jake, and eventually she and her husband, Paul, divorced. Ten years later, Ellie’s remains and her backpack are found, though the police are unable to determine the reasons for her disappearance and death. After Ellie’s funeral, Laurel begins a relationship with Floyd, a man she meets in a cafe. She's disarmed by Floyd’s charm, but when she meets his young daughter, Poppy, Laurel is startled by her resemblance to Ellie. As the novel progresses, Laurel becomes increasingly determined to learn what happened to Ellie, especially after discovering an odd connection between Poppy’s mother and her daughter even as her relationship with Floyd is becoming more serious. Jewell’s (I Found You, 2017, etc.) latest thriller moves at a brisk pace even as she plays with narrative structure: The book is split into three sections, including a first one which alternates chapters between the time of Ellie’s disappearance and the present and a second section that begins as Laurel and Floyd meet. Both of these sections primarily focus on Laurel. In the third section, Jewell alternates narrators and moments in time: The narrator switches to alternating first-person points of view (told by Poppy’s mother and Floyd) interspersed with third-person narration of Ellie’s experiences and Laurel’s discoveries in the present. All of these devices serve to build palpable tension, but the structure also contributes to how deeply disturbing the story becomes. At times, the characters and the emotional core of the events are almost obscured by such quick maneuvering through the weighty plot.
Dark and unsettling, this novel’s end arrives abruptly even as readers are still moving at a breakneck speed.Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-5464-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
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