A beautifully written tale of the Pacific Northwest, rich with myth and character.
Dunn’s novel chronicles the life of a pirate broadcaster raised in the harsh logging territories of the Pacific Northwest.
The novel begins with a modern version of one of the world’s oldest tales: A baby, abandoned but otherwise healthy, is discovered in a makeshift vessel along the watery shores. Lancelot Aloysius Bauer, better known as Bear, is living in the furthest northwest reaches of Washington state—where he has always lived—working in the logging industry, the only life he has known ever since he was a boy serving as a prep cook for ravenous loggers. One day, while strolling by the shallow waters just off the shore of the Pacific, he discovers a metal drum, and inside it, a lone baby. As simply as that, the care of this child is thrust upon him as if by divine providence. (In a nifty bit of irony in this narrative, which is steeped in the natural environment, the boy is named Petr, after the word on the side of the drum in which he was found: “Petroleum.”) Though Bear is wholly unprepared for fatherhood, his good-hearted attempts to parent do occasionally hit the mark, such as when he purchases Petr a Realtone TR-1088 transistor radio, which fosters the passion that comes to drive Petr’s young life: the medium of radio. As Petr’s fascination grows, he lights out on his own, broadcasting pirate radio waves from the enchanted forests of his native stomping grounds. Meanwhile, Baie, the novel’s other protagonist, is back in the area, fresh from a French monastery and looking to start over after the death of her parents—her story is a surprising but equal counterpart to Petr’s tale.
Dunn’s richly-drawn landscape of the remote stretches of the Pacific Northwest is rife with magic and mysticism, and the sense that larger, more cosmic forces are at play all around us—none more so than the narrator, revealed to be the voice of a sort of mythical raven. (Baie, too, has an animal companion—in her case, a white otter.) Separated as a youth from his flock, the raven is marooned near Mount Olympus and present from the very moment of Petr’s discovery. The raven’s journey inspires some of the author’s best prose: “My skull became a tuner, my beak an antenna, and as I received, I lost my compass. Alive with radio waves, my body skipped off the upper atmosphere. Brilliant as magnesium flame and then black as coal, I tumbled back to earth, vibrating.” Such colorful language abounds in Dunn’s text, and he employs his skills as a poet—he has published several volumes of poetry in addition to novels—to excellent effect to limn the inhabitants of his rich environment, especially when providing brief sketches of childhood (Bear’s, in particular) to contextualize his characters as adults. While the novel may be a touch longer than is strictly necessary, Dunn’s inventive, lush prose and his sense of playfulness between humans and animals (and animals and the Earth) will carry readers through to a satisfying conclusion.
A beautifully written tale of the Pacific Northwest, rich with myth and character.Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9781642280944
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Izzard Ink
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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