Boing Boing: “Jacobs isn’t afraid to take YA horror into dark places, and this book has some chilling glimpses into sinister sexuality, violence, and psychological torture — but, amazingly, this stuff is never played for cheap thrills or shocks. … Jacobs is a master of racheting up the tension and never offering release.”
— Cory Doctorow
Read Cory Doctorow’s full review of The Shibboleth by John Hornor Jacobs at Boing Boing.
Publishers Weekly: In this haunting tale of grief and recovery, 17-year-old Andrew Brawley lives like a ghost in the sprawling wings of Roanoke General Hospital, working in the cafeteria, visiting patients, and borrowing what he needs to get by. When he’s not trying to play matchmaker for his friends Lexi and Trevor—both battling cancer—he’s talking to nurses or working on his comic, Patient F, all while avoiding the tragic circumstances that took his family and left him behind. When Rusty, a boy badly burned by homophobic bullies, enters the hospital, Drew finds the courage to reach out, find love, and confront his deep-rooted guilt and confusion. Hutchinson (fml) takes some liberties with Drew’s unusual day-to-day circumstances, but spins an engrossing story, with Drew’s perceptions lending it an almost surreal, supernatural quality (such as his seeing Death around the hospital and fearing that she’s come for him). The narrative is further developed by violent excerpts from Patient F, skillfully drawn by Larsen, through which Drew tries to exorcise his demons.
Booklist: Recommended for readers seeking the thrill of the chase. Minnesota BCA agent Kirk Stevens (Kill Fee, 2013) is camping with his family when he’s called to the nearby scene of a rural deputy’s shooting. A young woman found next to the body could be either killer or witness; she’s hysterical and barely speaking English. When they finally convince the girl, Irina, to trust them, they learn that she’s escaped a ring of human traffickers who still hold her teenage sister captive. Stevens and his partner, Carla Windermere, get the case, and, assisted by FBI Agent Derek Mathers, they track the ring through a maze of shell companies and a string of bodies left like breadcrumbs as they race to find Irina’s sister before she’s sold beyond their reach. True, the human-trafficking story isn’t breaking new ground, but Laukkanen is gifted at creating relatable characters, and readers will happily tear through his version of this familiar plotline. The combination of breakneck pacing, scarily plausible evils, and steadily rising stakes culminates in an explosive, and only slightly improbable, finale.
Kirkus: The story swiftly knots itself into steampunk-ishly surreal complications, with dauntless (and, by this point, love-stricken) Karen in the thick of the action. Supplies all the Bear necessities: strong female characters, existential threats, intriguing developments and a touch of the light fantastic. Steampunk: Something of a new venture for Bear, whose previous output (Steles of the Sky, 2014, etc.) has ranged from heroic fantasy to science fiction, often with an embedded murder mystery. By the late 19th century, airships ply the trade and passenger routes, optimistic miners head in droves for the Alaskan gold fields, and steam-powered robots invented by licensed Mad Scientists do much of the heavy (and sometimes delicate) work. Continue reading »
RT Book Reviews: Most writers would kill (or, okay, maybe just maim) for a debut novel as electrifying as Alex Gordon’s Gideon. Anchored by well-crafted prose that features a creepy-as-hell villain, Gideon feels like Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” brilliantly reconceived in a Neil Gaiman-esque universe. Gordon hooks readers from page one, as Gideon’s first few chapters are chilling and thoroughly engaging, making for a book that is impossible to put down. The only thing keeping this from being a Top Pick! is that Lauren, while a believable kickass heroine, doesn’t get to fully team up with her spine-of-steel ancestor, Eliza Blaylock Mullin. But Alex Gordon — who has a truly enviable ability to establish mood – is a writer to watch.
Publishers Weekly: Bear’s rollicking, suspenseful, and sentimental steampunk novel introduces Karen Memery (“like ‘memory’ only spelt with an e”), a teenage “seamstress”that is, a prostituteat Madame Damnable’s Hôtel Mon Cherie in Rapid City. This Pacific Northwest city of an alternate 1878 is home to airships, surgical machines, and other mechanical wonders that can also be put to horrific use. As Karen meets and begins to fall for Priya, another sex worker who escaped from evil pimp Peter Bantle, they learn that Bantle has more dark plans than brothel competition. U.S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves and his Comanche partner, Tomoatooah, also tie Bantle to the gruesome murders of some of Rapid City’s most vulnerable women. Bear (The Eternal Sky) gives Karen a colorful voice, sharp eyes, and the spunk and skills necessary to scuffle with bad types as well as to win over people whose help she needs. Her story is a timeless one: a woman doing what is needed to get by while dreaming and fighting for great things to come.
Kirkus: A seductive work of paranormal horror that will draw readers into its cold and gloomy world.
Generations ago, the people of Gideon burned a witch at the stake, and that decision has haunted the town ever since. Lauren Reardon doesn’t learn that her father was a witch of Gideon until after he dies, but she finds herself drawn, or driven, to go back and dig up his secrets, and some of her own. Her actions propel the present-day plot, but the town itself is the real main character—a small, suspicious community of souls standing guard over the barrier between this world and the next. Debut novelist Gordon’s witches aren’t glamorous, and they deal with plenty of dirt and blood and oozing gore. The twists and turns are entertaining enough, and there are a couple of strong surprises lurking near the end, but it’s the atmosphere that’s the real star here. Everything in Gideon is dark and damp and cold, and everyone is nursing at least one inherited grievance. In the end, the book is as much about life in a small, closed-off community that believes “blood tells” and character can be inferred from a last name as it is about elemental magic and the struggle between good and evil.
This novel will thoroughly satisfy readers looking for suspense, horror and a grisly good time.
Kirkus: “The quick turns of the mystery plot make this a speedy and enjoyable read, and Finn’s world is a lively one, packed with all manner of weird and wonderful ghosts and goblins. Genre fans looking for a fix will enjoy the gleefully ghoulish setting and engaging, suspenseful plot.” Continue reading »
Publishers Weekly: This gripping postscript to Priest’s Clockwork Century series (which officially concluded with Fiddlehead) takes readers to the titular Galveston, Tex., haunted hotel, in an alternate 1895 seasoned with ghosts and gears. Father Rios is a former gunslinger cursed with second sight and a dark past. When Sister Eileen contacts him about the dozens who have died in the hotel, he visits ahead of an impending hurricane and soon witnesses the horrors firsthand. The hotel’s guests all have dark secrets, and the violence with which the hotel disposes of them is all the more horrifying as it takes place off-page, leaving only the aftermath for the characters to discover. Priest is hardly covering new ground, but the American steampunk setting gives the classic evil haunted house a nice new coat of paint. Rios is a great protagonist, full of conflicts and doubts, and he drives the tale well. While the story stands on its own, it also provides some melancholy closure for fans of Priest’s earlier books.
Kirkus: Hutchinson remains an author worth watching. A homeless, gay teen finds shelter and hope in the hospital where his family perished. Traumatized by their loss, 17-year-old Drew bides his time working in the kitchen of a suburban hospital. He lives in an abandoned wing and slips in and out of the halls and staff-only areas under the pretense that his grandmother is in a coma. He befriends two teens sick with cancer and finds himself opening up and falling for a gay teen admitted into the emergency room after being set on fire in a hate crime. At the same time Drew pens a gruesome comic strip called “Patient F” to exorcise his own demons and guilt; drawn by Larsen, this effectively communicates his interior turmoil, heightening it to near-grotesque levels over the course of the story. Hutchinson builds believable secondary characters and presents unexpectedly fresh plotting and genuine repartee—the conversations among Drew and his two teen friends feel particularly real and are full of insight and humor. Continue reading »