A riveting yarn with a charismatic tempter.
A gay lawyer copes with relationship problems, addiction, and a seductive stalker in this twisty thriller.
San Francisco attorney Marc Mendes seems to have it made, with a thriving employment-law practice and a blissful relationship with his boyfriend, Isaac Perez. But problems percolate, including his struggle to maintain sobriety after years of drug abuse; his estrangement from his father, Gabriel, a Syrian Cuban American rabbi and Talmudic jurist who frowns on homosexuality; and Isaac’s precarious position as an undocumented refugee from El Salvador. (It’s 1997, so Isaac can’t marry Marc to gain legal residency.) Infinitely complicating things is Alejandro Silva, Marc’s client in a workplace sexual harassment lawsuit that starts to go south when it emerges that Alejandro is on parole from a manslaughter conviction and has a history of sketchy imbroglios with older gay men. Young, handsome, and edgy, Alejandro also bears a strong resemblance to Simon, Marc’s first love, who died tragically. When Alejandro starts coming on to him, Marc is captivated despite his better judgment. The infatuation strains Marc’s relationship with the jealous Isaac, who is facing deportation, but when Marc pulls away, Alejandro only pursues him more cunningly and finally lures him into a night of drugs and debauchery that imperils his future with Isaac. Ortega-Medina’s novel works on many levels—as a twisty romantic melodrama; as an exposé of the cruelties of immigration law; and as a meditation on family and homeland that grows more poignant as Gabriel, with his own history of migration and loss, warms to Marc’s bond with Isaac. Ortega-Medina’s prose captures characters’ psychologies in the subtleties of gesture and language, and he makes Alejandro into an electrifying homme fatal who gets under Marc’s skin with his coy, tantalizing advances. (“Noticing my distraction, a faint blush colored his cheeks, and he sat up. ‘You like this, don’t you?’ He touched his index finger to his birthmark….‘You couldn’t take your eyes off it the first time we met at your office.’ ”) Readers will enjoy watching Alejandro throw a monkey wrench into everyone’s best-laid plans.
A riveting yarn with a charismatic tempter.Pub Date: April 25, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-61294-263-6
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Amble Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
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 touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.
Roberts’ latest may move you to tears, or joy, or dread, or all three.
Every summer, John and Cora Fox visit Cora’s mother, Lucy Lannigan, in Redbud Hollow, Kentucky, leaving their children, 12-year-old Thea and 10-year-old Rem, for a two-week taste of heaven. The children love Grammie Lucy far more than John’s snooty family, which looks down on Cora. Lucy, a healer with deep Appalachian roots, loves animals, cooks the best meals, plays musical instruments, and makes soap and candles for her thriving business. Thea—who’s inherited the psychic abilities passed down through the women of Lucy’s family—has vivid magical dreams, one of which becomes a living nightmare when a psychopath robs and murders John and Cora as Thea watches helplessly. Thea’s description of the killer and her ability to see him in real time help the skeptical police catch Ray Riggs, who goes to prison for life. Although Thea and Rem go on to have a wonderful childhood with Grammie, Thea constantly wages a mental battle with Riggs, who tries to use his own psychic abilities to get into her mind. Over the years, Thea uses her imagination to become a game designer while the more business-minded Rem helps manage her career. Thea eventually builds a house near Lucy, where a newly arrived neighbor is her teen crush, singer-songwriter Tyler Brennan. Tyler has his own issues and is protective of his young son but slowly builds a loving relationship with Thea, whose silence about her abilities leads to a devastating misunderstanding. At first Thea tries to keep Riggs locked out of her mind. As her powers grow, she torments him. Finally, she realizes that she must win this battle and destroy him if she’s ever to have peace.
A touching story of love and grief ends in an epic battle of good versus evil.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781250289698
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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