Much déjà vu about nothing.
Rose (The Book of Lost Fragrances, 2012, etc.) fails to breathe new life into her latest offering, which includes themes and characters introduced in previous stories and rehashes discussions about reincarnation, Jungian psychology and olfactory sensations.
Mythologist Jac L’Etoile, a woman with a troubled past, is contacted by former fellow mental patient Theo Gaspard, who also has a troubled past. Theo’s family home is on the Isle of Jersey, and Theo invites Jac to the island to view some mysterious discoveries he’s made. Against her therapist’s wishes, Jac journeys to the island, where she meets Theo’s elderly aunts, both with—what else?—troubled pasts, and Ash, Theo’s estranged and, yes, troubled brother. In the 1850s, the Isle of Jersey becomes Victor Hugo’s residence-in-exile and Hugo, troubled by his daughter Didine’s death, becomes obsessed with trying to communicate with her through séances. He also smokes hashish, which could explain his claim that he communicates with many of history’s greatest souls, including Jesus and Shakespeare. One evening, Hugo meets Fantine, a mysterious, troubled young woman from a family of perfumers who recently lost a child, and he becomes obsessed with her. Switch to 56 B.C., when a tribe of Druids also occupies the Isles—right on the property belonging to Theo. Owain, the high priest, his wife and child live a pretty normal Druid life until he and the other priests have troubling visions that they believe Owain must fulfill in order to save the tribe. Meanwhile, in 1855, Hugo’s having his own problems: He’s wrangling with the Shadow of the Sepulcher, aka Lucifer, who’s made him a pretty sweet offer. And then there’s Jac in present-day life: She’s suffering dizzy spells, being bombarded by different smells, experiencing overwhelming feelings of dread and calling out weird names. One of the aunts ties a ribbon around her wrist to keep Jac from slipping away to heaven-knows-where, and it seems to do the trick. As the author switches back and forth between the very distant past, the sort-of-distant past and the present, she finally connects all the troubled characters (long after the reader’s managed to do so) and brings the book to a close—but not before Jac, her hosts and therapists have protracted discussions about reincarnation and the collective unconscious.
Much déjà vu about nothing.Pub Date: May 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2150-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
