An engrossing horror yarn with a lot to say about the real-life challenges of OCD.
In Thorne’s horror novel, a boy battling OCD becomes the target of another kind of unrelenting torture—this one from beyond the grave.
Nine-year-old Timothy Aaron Beard Jr. (called “Tab”) is a sensitive youngster with a powerful imagination, a grumpy older brother, and bickering parents. His entire world begins to implode during a torrential Tennessee flood as Tab hunkers down in the basement to wait out the worst of the storm with his family. The Beards aren’t alone down there for long—a spectral presence manifests in the basement as well. Although unseen by the rest of the family, “Stinkeye Roy” appears to Tab in the subterranean gloom, glaring at him from beneath the bill of a grimy trucker cap with a ghastly set of hollow eye sockets. Things only get worse for young Tab the following day when an angry red welt suddenly emerges on the side of his head. It’s painful and full of nasty puss (“it throbbed, hot to his touch”), and Tab is absolutely terrified to discover there is something spherical—like an eyeball—moving around inside the bump. Thorne’s nearly moment-by-moment narrative effectively captures Tab’s growing feelings of anxiety and dread. The headlong narrative makes for a curiously surreal and off-kilter experience in which neither Tab nor the reader is given any respite from the child’s increasingly horrific ordeal. (The scene in which Tab is finally brought to a doctor to have the uncanny welt removed is a particularly gruesome dermatological nightmare worthy of Stephen King.) As Tab slowly begins to uncover more about “Stinkeye Roy” and the disturbing connection he shared with both of Tab’s parents in life, the protagonist’s increasingly erratic behavior causes those around him to doubt his sanity. It’s a double-dose of preadolescent angst that the author could have explored further had he wanted to go really dark, but mercifully—at least for Tab—Thorne doesn’t overly tighten the screws. In addition to crafting an intriguing narrative, the author is to be applauded for creating a very apt analog to the challenges of OCD.
An engrossing horror yarn with a lot to say about the real-life challenges of OCD.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781938271601
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Lost Hollow Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 26, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.
In this long-awaited fifth installment of Shannon’s Bone Season series, the threat to the clairvoyant community spreads like a plague across Europe.
After extending her fight against the Republic of Scion to Paris, Paige Mahoney, leader of London’s clairvoyant underworld and a spy for the resistance movement, finds herself further outside her comfort zone when she wakes up in a foreign place with no recollection of getting there. More disturbing than her last definitive memory, in which her ally-turned-lover Arcturus seems to betray her, is that her dreamscape—the very soul of her clairvoyance—has been altered, as if there’s a veil shrouding both her memories and abilities. Paige manages to escape and learns she’s been missing and presumed dead for six months. Even more shocking is that she’s somehow outside of Scion’s borders, in the free world where clairvoyants are accepted citizens. She gets in touch with other resistance fighters and journeys to Italy to reconnect with the Domino Programme intelligence network. In stark contrast to the potential of life in the free world is the reality that Scion continues to stretch its influence, with Norway recently falling and Italy a likely next target. Paige is enlisted to discover how Scion is bending free-world political leaders to its will, but before Paige can commit to her mission, she has her own mystery to solve: Where in the world is Arcturus? Paige’s loyalty to Arcturus is tested as she decides how much to trust in their connection and how much information to reveal to the Domino Programme about the Rephaite—the race of immortals from the Netherworld, Arcturus’ people—and their connection to the founding of Scion, as well as the presence of clairvoyant abilities on Earth. While the book is impressively multilayered, the matter-of-fact way in which details from the past are sprinkled throughout will have readers constantly flipping to the glossary. As the series’ scope and the implications of the war against Scion expand, Shannon’s narrative style reads more action-thriller than fantasy. Paige’s powers as a dreamwalker are rarely used here, but when clairvoyance is at play, the story shines.
Though it falters a bit under its own weight, this series still has plenty of fight left.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2025
ISBN: 9781639733965
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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