A somewhat repetitive yarn brimming with theological musings for readers with an interest in Christian philosophy.
In Kelley's novel, a Catholic priest analyzes a potentially historically significant manuscript about a post-crucifixion manhunt for Jesus Christ.
Father Thomas Mann teaches Christian history at Columbia University in 2029. His quiet life is upended when he gets a middle-of-the-night phone call from his friend Miles, a prestigious archaeologist. Miles has discovered an astoundingly intact trove of scrolls in a tomb in Kashmir and has already authenticated them; however, he doesn’t have the skills necessary to translate the Latin contained within, which is where Father Mann comes in. Although initially reluctant, Mann agrees to fly to Kashmir, where he will have three months at a secluded monastery to translate the scrolls before the state destroys them as “blasphemy.” Upon setting to work, Mann discovers that the scrolls follow Marcus Decia, a disgraced tribune, and his companions Poet and Boy as they search for Jesus after he has reportedly risen from the dead. They are hounded by another, much less honorable pair of bounty hunters, and their clashes provide much of the novel’s action. The trio eventually intersects with Bhagawati Ma, a “blissful spiritual woman” from India who helps guide them not only to the man they’re seeking but also to inner peace and religious belief. Aside from the clashes with the rival bounty hunters, the majority of the narrative focuses on ethical and religious deliberations. While Boy was enslaved by Marcus after his village fell to the Romans in battle, the text is primarily concerned with maintaining Marcus’ honorable and irreproachable character—rather than honestly interrogating the undeniable contradictions this entails, the story goes to great pains to affirm that Boy actually wants to be and continues to benefit from being enslaved. Poet, as the name suggests, is the chronicler of the group; he is immediately invested in the chase as a storyteller, providing much of the novel’s perspective. Interludes in which Mann reflects with a friendly monk, Lama Chinchinanaga, break up the narrative as Mann drily muses about the implications of the text and whether the pope will want it to see the light of day.
A somewhat repetitive yarn brimming with theological musings for readers with an interest in Christian philosophy.Pub Date: April 20, 2025
ISBN: 9781964251561
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Illumify Media Global
Review Posted Online: yesterday
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.
Three women deal very differently with vampirism in Schwab’s era-spanning follow-up to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020).
In 16th-century Spain, Maria seduces a wealthy viscount in an attempt to seize whatever control she can over her own life. It turns out that being a wife—even a wealthy one—is just another cage, but then a mysterious widow offers Maria a surprising escape route. In the 19th century, Charlotte is sent from her home in the English countryside to live with an aunt in London when she’s found trying to kiss her best friend. She’s despondent at the idea of marrying a man, but another mysterious widow—who has a secret connection to Maria’s widow from centuries earlier—appears and teaches Charlotte that she can be free to love whomever she chooses, if she’s brave enough. In 2019, Alice’s memories of growing up in Scotland with her mercurial older sister, Catty, pull her mind away from her first days at Harvard University. And though she doesn’t meet any mysterious widows, Alice wakes up alone after a one-night stand unable to tolerate sunlight, sporting two new fangs, and desperate to drink blood. Horrified at her transformation, she searches Boston for her hookup, who was the last person she remembers seeing before she woke up as a vampire. Schwab delicately intertwines the three storylines, which are compelling individually even before the reader knows how they will connect. Maria, Charlotte, and Alice are queer women searching for love, recognition, and wholeness, growing fangs and defying mortality in a world that would deny them their very existence. Alice’s flashbacks to Catty are particularly moving, and subtly play off themes of grief and loneliness laid out in the historical timelines.
A beautiful meditation on queer identity against a supernatural backdrop.Pub Date: June 10, 2025
ISBN: 9781250320520
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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PERSPECTIVES
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
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BOOK REVIEW
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