An atypical time-travel story as dense as it is fascinating.
Two members of a family—from different time periods—use psychic abilities to manipulate past events but with conflicting purposes in Chiocchi’s (Baby Boomer Bust?, 2010, etc.) sci-fi tale.
There’s a curse in the Pennfield family. Certainly, college professor Chris believes so, partially blaming his alcoholism and philandering ways on a ghost’s centurieslong vendetta against the Pennfields. In 2007, he writes a letter for future descendants, warning them of the curse and convincing Jimmy Mashimoto-Pennfield in 2052 that he himself is cursed. Chris and Jimmy, like other Pennfield men throughout the years, have experienced “unexplained psychic incidents,” namely seeing apparitions. Chris, however, uses his psychic ability to peek back at 1963, looking for a way to explain his relative’s—then–7-year-old Shippy—catatonic state and consequent institutionalization. Chris surmises it’s curse-related. Jimmy has a similar idea, only he hopes to alter the past to keep Shippy out of the sanatorium, theorizing that Shippy will be cursed later, which will, theoretically, reset events and allow Jimmy to save his own skin. Chris’ vivid dream afterward shows him the altered past, and believing Shippy is now unquestionably cursed, he returns to ’63 to undo the change. He and his scientist pals, rightly presuming they’re up against a future Pennfield, may soon have to rescue Shippy from a fate worse than institutionalization. The novel is just as complicated as it sounds, but the author ably leads readers through the multiple storylines. He structures the narrative using two time periods—Chris in 2007 and Jimmy in 2052—generating an unhurried but absorbing pace. Jimmy’s selfish motive makes him an unequivocal villain, but there are a few twists, including a surprise relationship and curious backdrops, like the future world ruled by a series of “virtual governments.” Each time Shippy’s fate changes, the plot is harder to follow, but explanations and subsequent resolutions are logical.
An atypical time-travel story as dense as it is fascinating.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 647
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2018
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
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
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