An entertaining, if somewhat lightweight, coming-of-age adventure.
Four teenage Texans find themselves stranded on a forbidding, inaccessible island in this novel.
William Flynn and his friends Brian Johnson, Randy Moss, and Miguel Gonzalez are subject to repeated bouts of bullying from the local Thousand Oaks Gang. One day, a school security guard intervenes when the gang attacks, and the bullies flee, leaving behind a rucksack containing a large quantity of money and marijuana. William hides the bag at his house, and when the gang comes looking for it, he doesn’t answer their questions, which inevitably leads to further violent encounters. On a camping trip, the boys meet Tony and Victoria, two 18-year-olds who work on the lake, and they strike up a friendship with them. The boys later spend a weekend at the lakeside in an old abandoned mansion that William calls the Cabin of Seclusion;when members of the Thousand Oaks Gang arrive, however, the kids are forced to flee by boat, which, due to poor navigation, finds them stranded on an island surrounded by jagged rocks. A possibly poisonous snake bites Randy, Brian can’t swim, and without shelter or an obvious source of food, all of the boys find themselves in a very bad situation. In an afterword, Semegran makes no secret of his admiration for William Golding’s classic 1954 novel, Lord of the Flies and Stephen King’s 1982 novella The Body, on which the popular 1986 film Stand by Me was based. It shows in his own work, as he puts the dynamics of adolescent friendships at the heart of his story, although the narrative doesn’t really carry the same weight as Golding’s. The group dynamic doesn’t shift significantly on the island, either; there are no power struggles, divisive politics, or moral dilemmas, which saps some of the narrative’s power. The novel’s pacing is somewhat inconsistent, as well, with a long buildup to the island scenes and a relatively lengthy where-are-they-now coda. Overall, though, this is an absorbing, nostalgic, and polished story that will likely find its readership.
An entertaining, if somewhat lightweight, coming-of-age adventure.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-08-785685-8
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Mutt Press
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.
Who was Shakespeare?
Move over, Earl of Oxford and Francis Bacon: There’s another contender for the true author of plays attributed to the bard of Stratford—Emilia Bassano, a clever, outspoken, educated woman who takes center stage in Picoult’s spirited novel. Of Italian heritage, from a family of court musicians, Emilia was a hidden Jew and the courtesan of a much older nobleman who vetted plays to be performed for Queen Elizabeth. She was well traveled—unlike Shakespeare, she visited Italy and Denmark, where, Picoult imagines, she may have met Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—and was familiar with court intrigue and English law. “Every gap in Shakespeare’s life or knowledge that has had to be explained away by scholars, she somehow fills,” Picoult writes. Encouraged by her lover, Emilia wrote plays and poetry, but 16th-century England was not ready for a female writer. Picoult interweaves Emilia’s story with that of her descendant Melina Green, an aspiring playwright, who encounters the same sexist barriers to making herself heard that Emilia faced. In alternating chapters, Picoult follows Melina’s frustrated efforts to get a play produced—a play about Emilia, who Melina is certain sold her work to Shakespeare. Melina’s play, By Any Other Name, “wasn’t meant to be a fiction; it was meant to be the resurrection of an erasure.” Picoult creates a richly detailed portrait of daily life in Elizabethan England, from sumptuous castles to seedy hovels. Melina’s story is less vivid: Where Emilia found support from the witty Christopher Marlowe, Melina has a fashion-loving gay roommate; where Emilia faces the ravages of repeated outbreaks of plague, for Melina, Covid-19 occurs largely offstage; where Emilia has a passionate affair with the adoring Earl of Southampton, Melina’s lover is an awkward New York Times theater critic. It’s Emilia’s story, and Picoult lovingly brings her to life.
A vibrant tale of a remarkable woman.Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780593497210
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.
Many years after her older brother, Bear, went missing, Barbara Van Laar vanishes from the same sleepaway camp he did, leading to dark, bitter truths about her wealthy family.
One morning in 1975 at Camp Emerson—an Adirondacks summer camp owned by her family—it's discovered that 13-year-old Barbara isn't in her bed. A problem case whose unhappily married parents disdain her goth appearance and "stormy" temperament, Barbara is secretly known by one bunkmate to have slipped out every night after bedtime. But no one has a clue where's she permanently disappeared to, firing speculation that she was taken by a local serial killer known as Slitter. As Jacob Sluiter, he was convicted of 11 murders in the 1960s and recently broke out of prison. He's the one, people say, who should have been prosecuted for Bear's abduction, not a gardener who was framed. Leave it to the young and unproven assistant investigator, Judy Luptack, to press forward in uncovering the truth, unswayed by her bullying father and male colleagues who question whether women are "cut out for this work." An unsavory group portrait of the Van Laars emerges in which the children's father cruelly abuses their submissive mother, who is so traumatized by the loss of Bear—and the possible role she played in it—that she has no love left for her daughter. Picking up on the themes of families in search of themselves she explored in Long Bright River (2020), Moore draws sympathy to characters who have been subjected to spousal, parental, psychological, and physical abuse. As rich in background detail and secondary mysteries as it is, this ever-expansive, intricate, emotionally engaging novel never seems overplotted. Every piece falls skillfully into place and every character, major and minor, leaves an imprint.
"Don't go into the woods" takes on unsettling new meaning in Moore's blend of domestic drama and crime novel.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780593418918
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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