Reed, Kit Books

The Night Children

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Congrats for "The Night Children" 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Late yesterday I finished reading Kit Reed's new book "The Night Children." It is a classic page-turner and I enjoyed the story. Without divulging too much, I feel that Lance is an important character like the Lone Ranger, who appears on the scene right when you need him, and then disappears just as quickly when the job is done.

Opposing what Lance stands for is the main villain, Amos Zozz, a cross between the Phantom of the Opera and Darth Vader, and equally as sinister. Isabella, his daughter, is also a powerful character and represents Zozzco and its reclusive founder to a "T." Between them, they wreak havoc on Castertown through their giant Megamall.

Caught in the middle are the Night Children, who rise above their personal tragedies to make a difference. They include the main characters, Jule and Tick, as well as others like Mag and Doakie, whom the author fleshes out very well. They show surprising unity when the chips are down and create a microcosm that most adults would do well to imitate.

With all the mysterious disappearances and other strange happenings at the Megamall, I wondered why an investigative reporter hadn't snooped around, but then this is a children's novel and some complexities are best left alone. Plus the fact that the people of Castertown were being drugged, as well as being paid very high wages, helps one to understand their greedy complacency. The novel's language is target age appropriate and its plot is well developed. I look forward to a sequel. Rev. Dennis J. Mercieri

Editorial Review:

Inside the Castertown MegaMall, the biggest mall in the world, live the night children—runaways, abandoned kids, kids who got lost and were never found. They only come out at night, after all the shoppers are gone.

When thirteen-year-old Jule Devereaux visits the mall after the mysterious disappearance of her aunt, she becomes a pawn in the war between two gangs of night children: the Castertown Crazies, led by the stalwart Tick Stiles, and the Dingos, whose leader is the batty Burt Arno. What the night children don’t realize is that the megalomaniacal owner of the MegaMall, billionaire Amos Zozz, knows all about them. To him, they are vermin—“rats” living in his beautiful mall—and he has plans to exterminate them. Julie, Tick, and Burt must join forces if they want to survive.…

The Baby Merchant

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

astounding 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This woman never fails to amaze me. She is able to do speculative fiction with so much immediacy -- and hence, more suspence and menace -- creating worlds that contain classic science-fiction-y elements, and yet are so recognizably our own, for tales that are a veritable punch to the gut.

This book reminds me of all that was excellent about "The Children of Men" by P.D. James. In short: in a period in our not so distant future when a shortage of babies and a preponderance of fertility issues make children a rare commodity, Tom Starbird is the Baby Merchant, an indivudual who's taken it upon himself to remove infants from what he deems unsuitable environments with unfit mothers, and to place them, for a hefty fee, in loving homes where they'll be "wanted" -- according to his own judgment, at least. He's good at what he does -- the best -- but with his moral compass wavering and on the verge of quitting for good, he finds himself blackmailed into one last job, which turns out very -- catastrophically -- differently from what he expects.

The characters are vividly drawn and for the most part sympathetic, if imperfect, and the pacing is so rapid you can hardly put the thing down. I neglected work! Reed is skilled at capturing the inner life of both her protagonists and antagonists, through monologue and stream of consciousness (although her main villain remains a little flat) without ever being boring (a neat trick with stream of consciousness and not easy to do). I think this book has a somewhat stronger ending than the also excellent "Thinner Than Thou," mainly because the story itself is smaller -- about just a few people rather than an entire religious movement. It's more covincing, makes more sense, and provides more closure.

Editorial Review:

Among careerists who postpone parenthood, fertility problems abound. Adoptions have always been difficult and now America’s borders have been closed by the Centers for Disease Control. Babies are high end commodities in this economy, microchipped at birth to protect them from theft.
Tom Starbird rescues "unwanted" babies—but he’s tired of meeting wealthy would-be parents’ demands for “perfect” children. Tom is shutting up shop when Jake Zorn, the Television Conscience of Boston, blackmails him into doing one more job.
Desperate to find one last perfect baby, Tom finds the lovely and very pregnant Sasha Egan. Stalked by her unborn child's father, on the run—Tom guesses she will be glad to be rid of her burden. Neither he nor Sasha could predict that the baby she never wanted is the one thing in her life she will do anything to keep.

Thinner Than Thou

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In the tomorrow of Thinner Than Thou, the cult of the body has become the one true religion. The Dedicated Sisters are a religious order sworn to help anorexic, bulimic, and morbidly obese youth. Throughout the land, houses of worship have been replaced by the health clubs of the Crossed Triceps. And through hypnotically powerful evangelical infomercials, the Reverend Earl preaches the heaven of the Afterfat, where you will look like a Greek god and can eat anything you want. Just sign over your life savings and come to Sylphania, the most luxurious weight-loss spa in the world, where the Reverend himself will personally supervise your attainment of physical perfection.
But the glory of youth and thinness that America worships conceals a hidden world where teens train for the competitive eating circuit, where fat porn and obese strippers feed people's dark desires, and where an underground railroad of rebellious religions remember when people worshipped God instead of the Afterfat.
As Annie, an anorexic, and her friend Kelly, who is so massive she can barely walk, find out, the tender promises of the Dedicated Sisters are fulfilled by forced feedings and enforced starvation in hidden prisons.
As middle-aged Jeremy discovers, Sylphania is a concentration camp where failure to lose weight and tone up leads to brutal punishment.
The Rev. Earl's public sympathy for the overweight conceals a private contempt . . . and, beneath that, a terrible longing known only to a select few.
The inevitable decay of old age is the only thing keeping mankind from reaching perfection. Luckily, Reverend Earl has a plan that will take care of that . . . .

Weird Women, Wired Women

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Weird Women, Wired Women 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I saw this book in a local library, it was sitting on the bottom shelf and it caught my eye. I checked it out because it was a compilation of short stories, and I didn't have to set aside the time to be involved in a book. I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO MISTAKEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE! The stories are fantastic and they leave you pondering for weeks. I loved this book so much that even before finishing it, I was searching the internet for more titles by Kit Reed. YOU WANT THIS BOOK!

Editorial Review:

Kit Reed has been one of science fiction's strongest voices since she published her first short story in 1958, a tale called "The Wait" that appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Much of her work since has focused on women and women's issues, subjects Reed both has a passion for and has much to say about. As the title of this book suggests, it's a collection of Reed's stories dealing with women--a total of 19 starting with "The Wait" and ending with "Whoever." Although Weird Women, Wired Women has been described as a "needed contribution by an important feminist fiction writer," on a more basic level it's an excellent collection by a gifted author. Reed's crisp prose and focused plots complement her insights into society, whether she's dealing with the treatment of women in a male-dominated culture or the relationship between a mother and daughter. --Craig Engler

Little Sisters of the Apocalypse (Black Ice Books)

Kit Reed

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Editorial Review:

A motorcycle gang of nuns rides out on a mysterious rescue mission in this dazzling work of metaphysical science fiction.

Seven for the Apocalypse

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

GET THIS BOOK 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book rocks! The writing is great and the stories are amazing. Granted now River is reminiscent of A.I. but you have to read the title story. If that doesnt grab you, nothing will.

Editorial Review:

A dazzling new collection carries Reed's trademark blend of sentiment and sting.

Dogs of Truth: New and Uncollected Stories

Kit Reed

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Too Cute 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

A few in this book are gems but most are a little too cute and contrived.
Keep this as a "C" List selection.

Horror with a Twist 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ordinarily, when reading a book of short stories in the horror genre, the more normal the lead-in and middle of the story, the more horrible the ending. The reader comes to expect this, anticipate it, and therefore, discount it. Not so with these stories. Ms. Reed still manages to surprise the reader with the twists at the end, or the way in which the "normal" part draws you in, only to shock in the wrap up. Based on her short stories, Ms. Reed is an excellent author, and this is a much better than "normal" book of short stories.

Editorial Review:

The Dogs of Truth contains 17 new or previously uncollected short stories. Included are "High Rise High," about a student revolt at the ultimate "secure" high school; "Focus Group," where a star-struck fan dictates the fate of soap opera characters through a biochip implant; "Escape from Shark Island," which looks at an extreme version of today's trendy "family bed;" and "Precautions," where germ-phobia reigns supreme.

The new stories tell of the "Grand Opening" of the world's largest mega-mall, study the relationship of a writer and his muse in "Getting It Back," and, in "The Shop of Little Horrors," take a dark look at the child-free lifestyle.

Bronze

Kit Reed, Edward Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The cover held a lot of promise for this book, but I'm glad I checked it out from the library rather than spending money on it. The author began it with a very intriguing scene, which was gripping and left me wanting to know what had happened to Jimmy... but Jimmy was never visited again in the rest of novel save a few references to his name, and it never told what he was so ashamed of doing. Certain very important details changed... such as the name of the male protagonist's first love interest. Halfway through the book, she had a totally different name. The characters were poorly developed and unsympathetic, especially when they started hitting on stereotypes, such as the Native American girl. The idea of using human life to bring reality to the statues was unique and could have been built on, but the author didn't do it well enough to make the idea credible within the novel. And the ending was a complete letdown. I feel bad about giving the author a bad review, but some main elements of fiction were lacking or poorly done.

Editorial Review:

The new novel from the author of Thinner Than Thou, Bronze is a brooding tale of love and art and dark ambition. When Jude Atkins hops a plane to be with a handsome artist she met online, she has no idea what horrors await her on the Carolina coast. Peter Benedict says he's a painter, but all the Benedicts are sculptors. His powerful mother, Ava, rules the family, and she has a secret. Peter loves Jude, but this is not the first time he's been in love. What happened to Dana, the first woman he brought home to Wayward Plantation? Why is his father so troubled, and what made his father's generation flee to the other side of the world? This gifted, troubled family has a secret Jude will learn only when it's almost too late. The old house hides a terrible legacy that ties the Benedicts to Wayward, where beautiful, dangerous Ava rules and Thorne, her hulking henchman, lurks. Now Ava is calling them all back...

Bronze

Kit Reed, Edward Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

The cover held a lot of promise for this book, but I'm glad I checked it out from the library rather than spending money on it. The author began it with a very intriguing scene, which was gripping and left me wanting to know what had happened to Jimmy... but Jimmy was never visited again in the rest of novel save a few references to his name, and it never told what he was so ashamed of doing. Certain very important details changed... such as the name of the male protagonist's first love interest. Halfway through the book, she had a totally different name. The characters were poorly developed and unsympathetic, especially when they started hitting on stereotypes, such as the Native American girl. The idea of using human life to bring reality to the statues was unique and could have been built on, but the author didn't do it well enough to make the idea credible within the novel. And the ending was a complete letdown. I feel bad about giving the author a bad review, but some main elements of fiction were lacking or poorly done.

Editorial Review:

The new novel from the author of Thinner Than Thou, Bronze is a brooding tale of love and art and dark ambition. When Jude Atkins hops a plane to be with a handsome artist she met online, she has no idea what horrors await her on the Carolina coast. Peter Benedict says he's a painter, but all the Benedicts are sculptors. His powerful mother, Ava, rules the family, and she has a secret. Peter loves Jude, but this is not the first time he's been in love. What happened to Dana, the first woman he brought home to Wayward Plantation? Why is his father so troubled, and what made his father's generation flee to the other side of the world? This gifted, troubled family has a secret Jude will learn only when it's almost too late. The old house hides a terrible legacy that ties the Benedicts to Wayward, where beautiful, dangerous Ava rules and Thorne, her hulking henchman, lurks. Now Ava is calling them all back...