Mostly seaworthy.
A young woman battles sea monsters in this turn-of-the-20th-century fantasy set on the Isle of Man.
Sixteen-year-old Bridey Corkill has hated the sea ever since it lured her grandfather to his death when she was 9. Until she can realize her dream of leaving her small fishing village to become a London shop girl, she reluctantly takes a job working for old Morag, who has a reputation as a witch. When Bridey’s female neighbors begin to disappear one by one around the same time that Bridey sees an ominous black fin in the harbor, only Morag agrees that something monstrous from the ocean is to blame. Could it be the same beast that took Grandad? Meanwhile, Bridey discovers a handsome naked stranger she dubs Fynn washed up on the shore and quickly falls for him. Fynn claims amnesia but is soon accused by the villagers of murdering the missing women. Bridey must confront her fear of the water and the monsters within if she hopes to save Fynn and discover the truth about the missing villagers. Marsh’s prose is often overdone (“the frigid fingers of a northern wind penetrated the hot kitchen”), and romance-novel clichés abound (“Then his mouth was on mine, hot, damp, salty”). Still, the Manx setting is an unusual (albeit all-white) one that’s rich in folklore, and this watery take on “Beauty and the Beast” will be catnip to paranormal-romance readers.
Mostly seaworthy. (author's note, glossary) (Fantasy. 12 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5107-0348-3
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The sardonic tone of the narrator’s voice lends a refreshing air of realism to this riotously paced quest tale of heroism...
Edgar Award–winning Riordan leaves the adult world of mystery to begin a fantasy series for younger readers.
Twelve-year-old Percy (full name, Perseus) Jackson has attended six schools in six years. Officially diagnosed with ADHD, his lack of self-control gets him in trouble again and again. What if it isn’t his fault? What if all the outrageous incidents that get him kicked out of school are the result of his being a “half-blood,” the product of a relationship between a human and a Greek god? Could it be true that his math teacher Mrs. Dodds transformed into a shriveled hag with bat wings, a Fury, and was trying to kill him? Did he really vanquish her with a pen that turned into a sword? One need not be an expert in Greek mythology to enjoy Percy’s journey to retrieve Zeus’s master bolt from the Underworld, but those who are familiar with the deities and demi-gods will have many an ah-ha moment. Along the way, Percy and his cohort run into Medusa, Cerberus and Pan, among others.
The sardonic tone of the narrator’s voice lends a refreshing air of realism to this riotously paced quest tale of heroism that questions the realities of our world, family, friendship and loyalty. (Fantasy. 12-15)Pub Date: July 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7868-5629-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A solid genre outing.
In the near future, an incarcerated teen with a reputation for escape attempts is moved to a new, maximum-security facility called the Rig, an oil-drilling platform in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, now converted to use as a prison.
Fifteen-year-old William Drake is a likable, tough-talking narrator who hails from London, the son of an African-American father and a Polish mother. True to hard-boiled type, Drake keeps to himself and resists making friends, even as he makes enemies of the worst baddies by defending weaker kids from them and is won over by the Rig's kindly psychologist, Dr. Lambros. Flavoring the third-person narration with some great one-liners (“She had the voice of a lifelong smoker thrown in a blender”), Ducie takes his time setting the stage for the action-packed second half of the novel, with Drake carefully plotting an escape that involves the skills of his hacker cellmate, Tristan, and the knowledge of Irene, a fellow prisoner who hints at a conspiracy that eventually blows up in their faces. All the elements of a great thriller are here—sinister villains, a stoic hero with a heart of gold, even mutated sharks. If some of these details seem a bit familiar to seasoned action-adventure fans, there is still plenty to keep them engaged, and the open-ended conclusion suggests there may be more to come.
A solid genre outing. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-50311-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
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