A historically rigorous and emotionally riveting period piece.
Slager’s historical novel, largely set at the end of the 17th century, chronicles the tale of a whaling village on the western coast of the future United States, threatened by natural disaster.
In 1699, Dushuuw is a battle-hardened warrior in Wuh-uhch, where his father, Chahbuhť̓, is a powerful and revered whaling chief. At 19, he’s the youngestson in his family and grows up in the shadow of his 22-year-old brother, Q̓otsik, who’s established himself as a prodigious whaler who’s likely to succeed Chahbuhť̓ one day. Dushuuw’s position within the tribe is compromised when he catches a man, Wiikihbis, having sex with his wife, and kills him. The marriage is a strategic one, cementing an important alliance, so the political fallout is considerable. Moreover, the man he killed was a whaler on Q̓otsik’s canoe, and now he must take his place—a job he doesn’t relish, and for which he possesses little natural talent; it’s a predicament that Slager portrays with great psychological subtlety and dramatic power. Meanwhile, Amuun’ax̱sum, the daughter of another whaling chief,is taken hostage by an invading tribe after they murder her mother and father. She’s later enslaved by Eekbis, the shaman of Dushuuw’s tribe. She longs to recapture the nobility that she now must hide to stay alive. Amuun’ax̱sum and Dushuuw fall in love, but their prospects for happiness seem dim, given the social expanse that separates them. Also, a disastrous earthquake and tsunami threatens to end their lives before they can make a bid for romantic bliss.
Slager’s novel is based on the Makah tribe, who live in the Cape Flattery area of what is now Washington state, and she brings the everyday lives and customs of its people into vivid relief. The natural disaster that waylaid the tribe is a real one, with her research into it and scholarly command of all the relevant source material nothing short of magisterial. Readers get a remarkable glimpse into a whaling community before European contact. However, this book is, first and foremost, a novel, and it tells an engrossing story. Both the principal characters are portrayed with notable nuance, and their budding relationship is both plausible and moving. Some people in Dushuuw’s tribe wonder if he’s more trouble than he’s worth, due to his taste for violence: “A man who takes that much human life—perhaps the spirit of the whale cringes from it, you see?” Dushuuw hears an elderly man say. “Is there really a way to get rid of so much human stench, such darkness of heart?” Amuun’ax̱sum also proves to be a compelling character, and Slager depicts the burden of her grief—over the loss of her family, and of her noble identity—with affecting complexity: “She wanted to fill a river with tears, and shoot her fear to the moon. She wanted a bench, not a mat. To own things, not hide them. A home. A voice. A name—to be known.”
A historically rigorous and emotionally riveting period piece.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9798991543514
Page Count: 520
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.
A year in the life of the No. 2 boarding school in America—up from No. 19 last year!
Rumors of Hilderbrand’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, it turns out, since not only has she not gone out to pasture, she’s started over in high school, with her daughter Shelby Cunningham as co-author. As their delicious new book opens, it’s Move-In Day at Tiffin Academy, and Head of School Audre Robinson is warmly welcoming the returning and new students to the New England campus, the latter group including a rare midstream addition to the junior class. Brainiac Charley Hicks is transferring from public school in Maryland to a spot that opened up when one of the school’s most beloved students died by suicide the preceding year. She will be joining a large, diverse cast of adult and teenage characters—queen bees, jealous second-stringers, boozehounds young and old, secret lesbians, people chasing the wrong people chasing other wrong people—all of them royally screwed when an app called Zip Zap appears and starts blasting everyone’s secrets all over campus. How the heck…? Meanwhile, it seems so unlikely that Tiffin has jumped up to the No. 2 spot in the boarding-school rankings that a high-profile magazine launches an investigation, and even the head is worried that there may have been payola involved. The school has a reputation for being more social than academic, and this quality gets an exciting new exclamation point when the resident millionaire bad boy opens a high-style secret speakeasy for select juniors in a forgotten basement. It’s called Priorities. Exactly. One problem: Cinnamon Peters’ mysterious suicide hangs over the book in an odd way, especially since the note she left for her closest male friend is not to be opened for another year—and isn’t. This is surely a setup for a sequel, but it’s a bit frustrating here, and bobs sort of shallowly along amid the general high spirits.
A boarding-school fantasia, with Hilderbrand’s signature upgrades to the cuisine and decor. Sign us up for next term.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9780316567855
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.
A dramatic, complex imagining of the origins of Stonehenge.
In about 2500 B.C.E. on the Great Plain, Seft and his family collect flints in a mine. He dislikes the work, and the motherless lad hates the abuse he gets from his father and brothers. He leaves them and arrives at a wooden monument where sacred events such as the Midsummer Rite take place. There are also circles of stones that help predict equinoxes, solstices, even eclipses. This is a world where the customary greeting is “May the Sun God smile on you,” and everyone is a year older on Midsummer Day. Except for a priestess or two, no one can count beyond fingers and toes—to indicate 30, they show both hands, point to both feet, then show both hands again. Casual sex is common, and sex between women is less common but not taboo. Joia, a young woman who becomes a priestess, wonders about her sexuality. After a fire destroys the Monument, she leads a bold effort to rebuild it in stone. To please the gods, they must haul 10 giant stones from distant Stony Valley. Of course neither machinery nor roads exist, so the difficulties are extraordinary. Although the project has its detractors, hundreds of able-bodied people are willing to help. Craftspeople known as cleverhands construct a sled and a road, and they make the rope to wrap around the stones. Many, many others pull. And pull. Meanwhile, the three principal groups—farmers, woodlanders, and herders—all have their separate interests. There is talk of war, which Joia has never seen in her lifetime. Soon it seems inevitable that the powerful farmers will not only start one but win it, unless heroes like Seft and Joia can come up with a creative plan. But there is also the matter of love for Joia in this well-plotted and well-told yarn. The story has a lot of characters from multiple tribes, and they can be hard to keep track of. A page in the front of the book listing who’s who would be helpful.
Vintage Follett. His fans will be pleased.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781538772775
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
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