This visionary glimpse into humankind’s potential future is an absolute must-read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.
Pat’s dystopian novel examines gender identity, environmentalism, and sexuality on an island enclave in the year 2111.
Set mainly on an island off the coast of what used to be Maine, the narrative begins in a post-Collapse world struggling to survive nuclear fallout, environmental disintegration, and worldwide economic failure. In this future world of chaos and lawlessness, Riddles Island (which is child-free and mostly technology-free) offers increasingly rare amenities to its inhabitants—peace and security. The small, self-sufficient populace are all nonbinary (and use the pronouns mer instead of her/him, e instead of he/she, and others), with most couples being polyamorous. The harmony, however, is maintained in large part through pharmaceuticals. The Ridlets, as they are called, take D2—a cocktail of drugs that regulates hormones, dampens emotions, and supposedly keeps the residents “healthy and alert.” But when a raggedy pirate named Jed lands on the island and meets the nonbinary couple Rory and Dylan, he connects sexually with Rory and talks mer into quitting a daily dose of D2. Jed, who travels as far away as Brazil with his crew, visits Rory infrequently after that initial tryst. With each visit, he finds mer not only more feminine, but also more lucid (not to mention more open to lifestyles outside the strictly regulated confines of the island) after quitting the D2. When Rory discovers that e is pregnant, mer utopian existence suddenly looks much different. The characters here are vividly drawn (even secondary characters are memorable), the worldbuilding is nuanced and convincing, and its examination of gender identity and gender roles in society makes this novel hard to put down. Add to that a post-apocalyptic backdrop that adroitly explores climate change and global food security, and many readers will find their worldviews challenged, even expanded, after living vicariously through Rory and mer adventures on and off the island.
This visionary glimpse into humankind’s potential future is an absolute must-read for fans of post-apocalyptic fiction.Pub Date: June 26, 2021
ISBN: 9798644014545
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
© 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.
