With a relatable heroine facing challenges in a vivid world of magic and mystery, this tale remains an action-packed treat.
In this YA fantasy sequel, a teenage magic student who goes into hiding to avoid a murderous monarch must embark on a secret mission.
In Night’s (The Crowns of Croswald, 2017) first book in this suspense-filled series, orphan and former castle maid Ivy Lovely explored her magical birthright at a school for those with the ability to become scrivenists (spell-casters using quills), came into possession of a broken gemstone of great power, and confronted the terrifying Dark Queen. The repercussions of that encounter and Ivy’s desperate need to find the missing pieces of the Kindred Stone before the Dark Queen does fuel Book II with more chilling mysteries—shadows and shades that seem to have a will of their own and the ominous theft of a black quill, corrupted by its dead owner and locked away for safety—and more of the author’s fertile flights of fancy. Ivy is sent by a storm-propelled, flying “cabby” to the secret town of Belzebuthe, where the sky is lit by stars made of wishes. She warms her feet on her pet scaldron, a small, fire-breathing dragon; “hairies,” Croswald’s common light source, tiny beings whose hair lights up in response to human speech, appear; and Ivy bonds with a wild “invisitaur,” a giant creature that can be seen only when outlined by falling rain or snow. (Night again gives any Harry Potterish similarities her own twist: Quogo matches aren’t a Quidditch-like sport, but a plot-driving competition between resuscitated quills and the magical specialties of departed scrivenists.) The author’s inventiveness doesn’t eclipse her well-defined heroine. Ivy still has fears and insecurities rooted in her past (trepidations the Dark Queen tries to exploit), yet she has gained confidence, made friends, and realized her strength during a brutal incursion into Belzebuthe. That dire event and words that Ivy discovers in a forgotten book set the stage for Night’s third installment of the series.
With a relatable heroine facing challenges in a vivid world of magic and mystery, this tale remains an action-packed treat.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9969486-6-1
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Stories Untold Press
Review Posted Online: Dec. 19, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.
Four men who meet as college roommates move to New York and spend the next three decades gaining renown in their professions—as an architect, painter, actor and lawyer—and struggling with demons in their intertwined personal lives.
Yanagihara (The People in the Trees, 2013) takes the still-bold leap of writing about characters who don’t share her background; in addition to being male, JB is African-American, Malcolm has a black father and white mother, Willem is white, and “Jude’s race was undetermined”—deserted at birth, he was raised in a monastery and had an unspeakably traumatic childhood that’s revealed slowly over the course of the book. Two of them are gay, one straight and one bisexual. There isn’t a single significant female character, and for a long novel, there isn’t much plot. There aren’t even many markers of what’s happening in the outside world; Jude moves to a loft in SoHo as a young man, but we don’t see the neighborhood change from gritty artists’ enclave to glitzy tourist destination. What we get instead is an intensely interior look at the friends’ psyches and relationships, and it’s utterly enthralling. The four men think about work and creativity and success and failure; they cook for each other, compete with each other and jostle for each other’s affection. JB bases his entire artistic career on painting portraits of his friends, while Malcolm takes care of them by designing their apartments and houses. When Jude, as an adult, is adopted by his favorite Harvard law professor, his friends join him for Thanksgiving in Cambridge every year. And when Willem becomes a movie star, they all bask in his glow. Eventually, the tone darkens and the story narrows to focus on Jude as the pain of his past cuts deep into his carefully constructed life.
The phrase “tour de force” could have been invented for this audacious novel.Pub Date: March 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-53925-8
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
PERSPECTIVES
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
© Copyright 2025 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.
