Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

  • An Editorial Review of “Ray Ryan” by Aiden Riley

    An Editorial Review of “Ray Ryan” by Aiden Riley

    An engaging contemporary coming of age story, Ray Ryan by Aiden Riley, follows and is narrated by the main character, Ray. The writing style is quite conversational and very British in its syntax. As the novel progresses through Ray’s life from childhood to mid-30s, the reader will learn of Ray’s challenges and fears, hopes and dreams that create the choices he must make to find his own way.

    The reader is first introduced to Ray in the year 1994 when he is still in grade school. Riley drops the reader right into the middle of Ray’s life and loves: his mother, Janet, his best friend, Kevin, and his passion for writing. While the love of writing takes a backseat for most of the story, Ray’s relationships, especially with his mother and best friend become central to the novel.

    Flash forward four years:  Ray is now in secondary school, scared out of his wits because not only is his new school enormous and intimidating, but he is still one of the smallest students around. Ray doesn’t let his size dictate passiveness however, and quickly learns that standing up for himself will not only get him left alone a bit, it also feels imperative. For the first time, Ray is not in class with his best friend Kevin, which takes him out of his comfort zone. The first day in class he meets a new friend, Anna, and makes a new enemy.

    The novel continues through Ray’s life and, as he gets older, life becomes simultaneously more rewarding and more challenging. For every bit of happiness there seems to be a bit of sadness or stress to maintain a balance. Ray falls in love. His father makes a reappearance in his life, and not for the better. His mother gives birth to his little sister. His friends get involved in drugs and face some hard times.

    When tragedy strikes unexpectedly, Ray must learn to cope with his new reality. The suddenness of the events may be a bit jarring for the reader, but do ring true to life and how tragedy occurs in the real world. Ray’s life changes forever and, like all of us who have experienced hardship, he runs through a gamut of emotions and comes out the other end the same, but different.

    Three years later, now in 2008, Ray’s life seems to be taking a new path when old relationships and feelings reappear. Ray must once again navigate tragedy, and in so doing, discovers what is truly meaningful to him. Events toward the end of the novel concerning the reappearance of Ray’s father may take the reader out of the story due to their inconsistency with the flavor of the rest of the novel.

    Readers should be prepared for traumatic and dramatic events of the non-cozy type (psychologically disturbing events).  These jarring events reflect vividly circumstances that some people experience in real life and add to the novel’s overall realistic and true-to-life tone. This is a brief hiccup however, as the conclusion of the novel is both satisfying and returns to the previously established voice and feel of a contemporary literary novel.

    Ray Ryan by Aiden Riley is a contemporary genre blending novel that does not follow a typical plot based structure. Rather each section highlights the important, life changing, and character building moments that the main character experiences. Riley’s characters are relate-able and authentic. There are a few of Ray’s cohorts with whom readers may find themselves desiring to shake some sense into—if only they could. At the same time, they will find themselves urging Ray on to follow his dream.

    Ray Ryan is a solid debut novel by Aiden Riley, an engaging contemporary coming-of-age story.

  • An Editorial Review of “Coming Home” by Gloria Javillonar Palileo

    An Editorial Review of “Coming Home” by Gloria Javillonar Palileo

    Coming Home, by Gloria Javillonar Palileo, brings vividly to life the plight of the American born non-white people, and particularly those of mixed blood, who must find a place to exist between diverse cultures. The acute pain of this dilemma is faced by millions of children whose parents are immigrants to North American culture. Palileo is well qualified to enlighten readers about the particular struggle of identity and of the need to fit in that many first generation Americans must grapple as she herself is an immigrant.

    Inspired by the experiences of the children that she and her husband adopted from the Philippines, Coming Home is a story that needs telling.

    Juan de la Cruz, an American-born twelve-year-old with Filipino parents who immigrated. He suffers from the racist barbs of school bullies who call him a “chink,” and then discovers his friends also do not consider him an American. However, Juan likes to go to the mall, play video games, and hang out like his peers. He doesn’t see himself as different. However, some of his classmates do since they don’t quite know where to place him since he isn’t white; he isn’t black. It is here when Palileo broaches the subject of generational racism as the children who mock Juan are picking up their opinions and derogatory name-calling from somewhere. Is it inherent in the culture? Do the children pick it up from their parents? Is it peer pressure?

    The conflict between identities is increased by his parents—his father welcomes being in America, his mother wants to return to the Philippines. She believes her son will never be accepted as an American. Juan, desperate to be an American, insists on being called “John,” asks his mother for plastic surgery on his nose, and, finally asks to be circumcised—a request that causes further crisis in the family.

    When Mrs. de la Cruz decides to take “John” for a visit to the Philippines, Juan decides he will become Filipino, tan himself and begins learning Tagalong. He soon discovers, however, that his Filipino cousins consider him very much an American. Though they take him on their adventures and include him in their games, the poverty and strange customs of his parents’ homeland, plus tales of circumcision practices of the past, convince Juan that he wants to come home to America. It isn’t until he is home that he realizes he, after all, belongs to his family and that is where “home” is for him.

    The book also gives an interesting insight into history and customs of the Philippines, a culture seeking to rid itself of the influence of hundreds of years under oppressive Spanish rule. Coming Home focuses on the effects that a history of oppression and racism could have when it zooms in on one little first generation American boy and his immigrant parents. Those who are intrigued by the story’s backstory of Philippine history may find Palileo’s latest work titled The Indios of great interest.

  • An Editorial Review of “Prepare to Come About” by Christine Wallace

    An Editorial Review of “Prepare to Come About” by Christine Wallace

    Christine Wallace writes with great clarity and honesty–and at times, with humor–about weathering the highs and lows of navigating family, career, and love in her gripping memoir Prepare to Come About.

    Wallace chronicles her wildly successful perinatal business that brought her accolades and awards for business achievement, along with celebrity radio and TV interviews, and other accouterments that come with the lifestyle. As the business garnered awards, it began assuming a life of its own.

    Christine’s professional life skyrockets, while her family life plummets. Christine’s confesses to her readers that her children were often left to fend without their own mother as she worked to help other women become one and the conflict that she internalized. She unflinching shares the other not-so-bright sides that sometimes accompany commercial professional achievement: teenage children in crisis, endless exhausting days, family pressures, work demands, and, seemingly, black holes of chaos.

    Her full-throttle lifestyle comes to a grinding halt at the zenith of her success beginning with the day she received an award at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Summit from President George W. Bush. The sharp contrasts between motherhood and professional accomplishment culminate during the awards ceremony in Washington, D.C. —thousands of miles away, one of her children must be admitted to the emergency room.

    As the economic tides turn, uncontrollable events broadside her business causing a devastating professional aftershock that amplifies her personal heartaches. Christine and her family struggle with a loss of control of everything in their lives. Christine struggles with her loss of identity as a successful professional, a role model, a caring mother, and a supportive spouse while she battles with the economic recession, personal depression, and, worst of all, her own loss of trust in herself and her capabilities.

    The fractured family makes an unorthodox choice that pivots them all into unfamiliar waters. Their lifeline comes in the form of a tall ship named Zodiac and its enigmatic captain. Life or death challenges and unforeseen moments of wonder and awe await Christine and her family. As they venture forth together in this new venture, the family members reconnect and rebuild their lives.

    This memoir illuminates the struggles and chaotic lives that many contemporary families are challenged with and then goes further. It inspires readers to look beyond society’s conventional solutions and rationalizations to plot their own course.

    Prepare to Come About by Christine Wallace is a story that restores faith in the strength and love of a family and will reaffirm your belief that a life lived on one’s own terms is the truest meaning of “achievement.”

  • An Editorial Review of “Rhythm for Sale” by Grant Harper Reid, Ph.D.

    An Editorial Review of “Rhythm for Sale” by Grant Harper Reid, Ph.D.

    Grant Harper Reid’s  Rhythm for Sale  tells the rags-to-riches story of his grandfather Leonard Harper, an extraordinary entertainer who danced, choreographed and produced his way to stardom in the frenzied years of The Harlem Renaissance, only to be forgotten after the last curtain call of that culturally transforming and iconic chapter in the history of American Musical Theater. Mr. Harper is considered the father of cabaret.

    In this fascinating biography, Dr. Reid’s decades of careful research, has managed to polish nearly a century’s worth of neglect from the image of his grandfather, the remarkable Mr. Leonard Harper. Dr. Reid is eager and happy to share the knowledge that he accumulated about this particular time in American history.

    The book’s tempo is fast-paced as the author condenses an encyclopedic amount of events, entertainers, prohibition gangsters, and the birth of a new genre of show business into its mere 242 pages. The well-documented facts and events often tap dance across the page with a fury, perhaps suggestive of the pace at which Leonard Harper worked his craft: He would often be involved in several stage productions simultaneously!

    Reid tracks his Alabamian grandfather’s career that began at 10 years-old when he was forced to enter show business full-time when his father dies. It was from his father that Leonard was introduced to performing. Prior to his father’s passing, Harper sang in church and danced for appreciative smiles and pennies along side his father. It seemed that young Leonard Harper had a natural talent for entertaining and a passion to perform.

    Reid shares his grandfather’s journey from dancing in broken hob-nailed “tap” shoes to making the Southern Circuit via “country road walking,” to working in Vaudeville, to basement gin-joints, and on to legendary venues such as The Cotton Club and the Apollo Theater. Reid also lets his readers in on the darker side of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of racial segregation, political corruption, and cultural clash that was prevalent during this time period of American history.

    Indeed this book stands tall, not only as a biography but as a reliable document of an important slice of American history. Reid also shares some of the fabulous lost photographs that he uncovered while researching his phenomenal grandfather’s journey in this penetrating work that mirrors the psychology of a nation in transition—one preparing for the coming Civil Rights movement.

    Much of the book’s inner light comes from the author’s, Grant Harper Reid, own, often humorous, observations, supplemented by a simply delightful parade of the celebrities and gangsters with whom Leonard Harper rubbed elbows. However, Reid doesn’t shy away from the deeper underbelly of Harper and his generation—white, black, or mixed.

    Grant Harper Reid, the author himself, was carried on stage as a ‘New Year’s Baby’ at the Apollo Theater by singer Jackie Wilson. And he remembers being around entertainers and show biz as a matter of course when he was a child. Later, the author worked professionally as a location scout and/or crewed for at least 40 films such as Fame, Mississippi Burning, and Do the Right Thing (IMDb). Reid’s latest project is Rhythm for Sale (2013), the biography of his late grandfather, Leonard Harper who came from a life of meager means in Alabama to become one of the great contributors to art and culture in the U.S.

    Like Harper himself, his biography, Rhythm for Sale is a vigorous and highly entertaining read that will transport its reader. Highly recommended.

  • An Editorial Review of “The Inscription” by Pam Binder

    An Editorial Review of “The Inscription” by Pam Binder

    Feisty and independent Amber MacPhee has a good teaching job, loving family, and nothing in the least messy, like love, to complicate things. But Amber finds herself smack in the middle of the biggest mess she’s ever been in after she crashes her car into Loch Ness and travels over 400 years into the past. The Inscription by Pam Binder is a heartwarming and sweet romance set in 1500’s Scotland.

    It’s Lachlan MacAlpin, immortal and laird of Urquhart Castle, who rescues Amber from the freezing waters of Loch Ness. He fears she will die like the many others he has pulled from the lake, but it quickly becomes clear that Amber will survive. As he pulls her from the Loch, Lachlan cannot help but notice that Amber, with her hair of “burnished gold” bears an uncanny resemblance to the woman of legend who will possess the knowledge of future generations and lead an immortal man away from the path of darkness.

    As Amber slowly allows herself to realize that she has not merely crashed her car and woken in the middle of an extremely dedicated historical reenactment, that she has in fact, woken up 400 years in the past, she faces an unprecedented set of challenges. She must learn what her place is in this alien world and try to find a way home. An explanation for her sudden appearance is quickly settled upon when Lachlan decides that the best way to keep her safe is to introduce her as his betrothed. As much as Amber hates the idea of relying on a man and false pretense to keep her identity safe, she cannot help but notice Lachlan’s broad shoulders and thick Scottish brogue.

    Amber tries to relax into her new environment and keep her head down while she tries to find a way back to her own time, but old habits die hard. She challenges Lachlan left and right, becomes the tutor to Lachlan’s younger brother, Gavin, and attracts the attention of more than a few men. She fears that there may not be a way for her to go home when she begins to suspect that she is not the first to travel back to this time.

    As Amber recovers and struggles to make sense of her sudden leap through time, Lachlan has his own battles to face. First, his lifelong enemy Subedei is closing in, and word is that he plans to attack and kill the MacAlpin’s for the punishment they bestowed upon him over a hundred years ago. Second, he feels the bloodlust that drove his father mad creeping ever closer and he is terrified of being possessed by it.

    Despite the challenges they face, Amber and Lachlan begin spending time together and soon get glimpses of each other through the walls they have each built around their hearts. Life moves on at a normal pace even as battle creeps closer to the castle. Are they the two the legend speaks of? Can Amber learn to love a man who may never grow old and die? And can Lachlan accept the healing power of love before Amber is sent back to her time, never to return?

    The Inscription is a heartwarming romance with more than one good twist at the end. Readers will find themselves rooting for not only Amber and Lachlan, but the solid cast of characters that supports this novel. This is truly a story of legendary love that spans the ages.

  • An Editorial Review of “How to Make a Pot in 14 Easy Lessons” by Nicola Pearson

    An Editorial Review of “How to Make a Pot in 14 Easy Lessons” by Nicola Pearson

    How to Make a Pot in 14 Easy Lessons by Nicola Pearson is the story of Joe, a potter, and Lucy, the British actress he has fallen in love with. Needless to say to anyone who has attempted pottery, throwing a pot together from lumps of earth is not easy—and that doesn’t take into inconsideration that the pot will survive the firing process! Hence, Pearson’s insightful basis for this delightful and unique love story.

    Lucy and Joe’s lifestyles could not be more different: Lucy is following a plan she has created for herself so she can experience working in theaters around the world, while Joe lives a simple life in the lush countryside of Western Washington, making his clay pots and expecting the unexpected with each firing of the kiln.

    Each phase of their relationship is based on the metaphor of making pots, a process that is as fluid and unpredictable as life.

    The story begins just as Joe has convinced Lucy to abandon her plan to travel to Australia to work as an actress and instead, move to Seattle. Even as Lucy agrees and boards the plane to fly out of Kennedy Airport in New York, she is troubled. One part of her is thrilled to be moving closer to Joe, while another part is worried that she has abandoned her passionate career plans for a man, something she promised herself that she would never do.

    Thus begins the journey of two people, one certain in the beginning that he wants to marry, the other troubled by emotions and impulsive decisions she doesn’t understand.

    While Lucy becomes more certain as time passes that she has made the right decision, Joe becomes less certain, less convinced that their relationship can work. Unpredictable events outside the couple’s control will force clarity on both, pushing them to confront their feelings and their relationship.

    Pearson has painted in vivid detail the lives of these two characters, as well as the ups and downs of a developing relationship. Her elaborate descriptions of the Pacific Northwest immerse the reader in the beauty of the Skagit Valley countryside where Joe builds his pots. Joe’s five acres, his home, and the minutiae of his daily life are depicted in such picturesque fashion as to bring the setting alive as a character in the novel. Readers will also enjoy the entertaining characters who add color and foils to Pearson’s captivating story.

    Pearson’s skill in describing the art of pottery making as a metaphor for the unpredictable nature of one’s life is unique and urges the reader to think about the lessons learned by the characters long after finishing the book. Fans of women’s fiction will certainly be waiting for more stories from this author.

  • An Editorial Review of “Mixed Blessings” by Harriet Cannon and Rhoda Berlin

    An Editorial Review of “Mixed Blessings” by Harriet Cannon and Rhoda Berlin

    What genuinely makes a difference in a couple’s ability and willingness to nurture and maintain their relationship? Rhoda Berlin and Harriet Cannon, both highly insightful psychotherapists, address this significant question through a series of fictional case studies of multicultural and multiethnic couples.

    Each couple’s story demonstrates a crucial concept, such as ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own culture is always right; cultural universal, an element, pattern or institution that is common in some form to all human cultures, such as age-related roles; and acculturation, adapting to the patterns or customs of a new culture.

    Other impediments to relationship harmony that are illustrated by the couples’ case studies include: cultural loss, the experience of moving out of one’s culture, social class or ethnic enclave resulting in a sense of estrangement; subculture, membership in an in-group within the majority culture, such as the military or a sorority; cultural grieving, the inability to overcome the loss from migrating to another country or marrying into a different type of family culture; cultural identity, the culture we identify with and feel as a “second skin;” and code switching, the ability to move fluently from one language and cultural context to another.

    Children accomplish cultural shifts most easily, code switching from their family’s way of life to a new language or social mores within months. Middle-aged people tend to resist change, hanging on to their traditional life-ways. Older persons may never make a successful shift out of their traditional culture, religion or social class.

    Particularly revealing is the notion that people socialized in an individualistic culture, such as America, Canada, the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand or Western Europe, have a demonstrably different social context for relating than people growing up in a collectivist type society. For instance, the extended family remains a major concern for persons growing up in such areas as rural China, Asia, Eastern Europe or India.

    Rather than cherishing an improved career or making lifestyle improvements through geographic changes, as in individualistic cultures, extended family-oriented persons are unwilling to sacrifice traditional values of support, loyalty and social approval. For example, a partially acculturated wife who grew up with the expectation that she must cater to her culturally grieving mother’s unceasing demands will find her more successfully adapted husband very unsympathetic to such arrangements.

    Multicultural and multiethnic couples get especially hung-up in the shift from early to later stages of their relationship, such as when they encounter the extended family. Let’s highlight one case. William, an American, had an uncle who served in World War II and had returned from that war profoundly impacted by years of internment in a Japanese prison camp. William’s implicit family rule of “never buy Japanese” proved to be a serious drawback for his new companion, Eve, a Japanese-American woman, who had suffered the indignities of living as a child in an American prison camp simply because she was Japanese. Eve experienced “hidden trauma” as she confronted the family’s prejudice and discrimination, contributing to her withdrawal, but William insisted they work out their difficulties. Through counseling, Eve and William developed a “big picture” of their situation, encouraging the extended family to leave their ethnocentrism behind. Now, family members even buy Japanese cars!

    Social class differences can be nearly as disruptive as ethnic or racial distinctions. Take the situation of an Indian couple, one from a Brahmin family and the other from a middle class background. The authors portray how cultural differences in their parents’ cooking, gift giving, household décor or child rearing practices can readily upset a couple’s harmony.

    Mixed Blessings is a fascinating and educational guide to understanding and healing couples’ relationships under pressure from ethnic, geographic, racial, social class and other cultural disparities. Not only do the authors provide incredibly lucid portraits of couples’ differences that make a difference, but they also indicate steps couples can take to minimize or eradicate apparent diversities.

    I strongly recommend this book for its courageous leap forward to elucidate the “hidden culture” that separates and divides loving families and especially for the authors’ substantial skills in showing us the various ways of healing the breaches.

    Travelers, educators and students going abroad, along with business people who want a better understanding of how to recognize and bridge cultural gaps would also benefit from reading Mixed Blessings.  

  • An Editorial Review of “His Father’s Eyes, His Mother’s Manners” by Kenneth Stokes

    An Editorial Review of “His Father’s Eyes, His Mother’s Manners” by Kenneth Stokes

    In 2003, an inaugural flight took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia, bound for Los Angeles. On board was a group of passengers who had nothing in common except that they were on a doomed flight. Few survived the crash on a remote island, but those who did would face the greatest challenge of their lives. His Father’s Eyes, His Mother’s Manners by Kenneth Stokes explores the nature of survival and the theme of inheritance in this literary work.

    The details of the crash and the reasons for it are never revealed to the reader, because they aren’t important to the story. Why the downing of the flight isn’t immediately detected by search and rescue teams, and why, after days, no help has arrived, are inconsequential questions. Rather, the author uses the crash to examine in depth the aspects of each character’s personality characteristics along with revealing past events and experiences. Stokes explores the impact they have on the ability of each character to survive when faced with catastrophic events.

    In the face of such extreme adversity, each character’s personality, their reactions to the situation in which they find themselves, affects the safety and survival of the entire group. Skills that are revered by a modern society are useless in this situation. People who have been led to believe that they are successful and deserving of the accolades they have earned in a more material, commercial society are now virtually helpless.

    Stokes has chosen as his main character Glen Reyes, a man who travels the world in search of rare plants and understands how to survive without the trappings and conveniences of modern society. Reyes is a teacher and a seer, capable of leading others. His constant companion is a small boy who has lost both parents—his father prior to the crash, and his mother as a victim of the crash itself.

    The boy sat next to Reyes during the flight, and from the beginning, he was thrilled to find in Reyes a man patient enough to answer the boy’s questions and to tell him stories from his family’s history. Once orphaned by the crash, he quickly comes to trust Reyes and then entreats Reyes to adopt him once they are rescued.

    Through Reyes’ work to create shelter and sustenance, and to teach the other stranded victims survival skills, he helps them face their own weaknesses and turn them into strengths. As time passes and no one comes to rescue them, those who haven’t learned to assimilate and work together become more at risk, as well as more of a risk to the others.

    The author presents a unique perspective on what might have been a more typical disaster story, weaving together truths taught from the harsh conditions the characters face, and from lessons learned from Reyes’ re-telling of ancient myths and historical events. Through his diverse cast of characters, Stokes reveals truths certain to resonate with his readers in “His Father’s Eyes, His Mother’s Manners.”

  • An Editorial Review of “Tree: One Life that Made a Difference by Norman E. Kjono

    An Editorial Review of “Tree: One Life that Made a Difference by Norman E. Kjono

    It is clear that Norman E. Kjono, author of Tree: One Life That Made a Difference, cares deeply for the interconnected nature of all living things. In his book, he takes us on a journey to a small valley in the Pacific Northwest where the “lifes” of this sacred place are in trouble—the inhabitants of this valley consider themselves to be lifes.

    “In the valley they thought of themselves together as “lifes.” This preserved their individual identity yet acknowledged the plural sense of them together as more than one.”

    The core message in Tree: One Life that Made a Difference, is thought provoking. That all lifes would work toward being the best they can be, and helping others without thought of reward, is ideal. This is a story that mixes form—interspersing prose,  poetry and songs; the poems dispersed through the story are to be read like proverbs.

    Valley culture is built on the idea that all lifes are interdependent, and that by each individual doing his or her best, the purpose of the Cosmos and Creator will be best served. Few characters in this novel are human, and a few are even inanimate, like Stream and Rock. Owls, deer, beavers, mushrooms, frogs, raccoons, and other creatures including Tree and the Ancients (redwood trees) make up the cast of characters in this inspirational work that asserts that one life can make a difference. And that difference begins with one positive act that in turn inspires another and another.

    The valley thrives and draws human visitors who leave their negative energy behind when they return home. All the lifes come together to try and figure out a way to deal with the negative energy produced by visitors to the valley. A toll plan is put forth by Elizabeth Jay and Harvey Crow. At first, this seems reasonable, but soon any life that disagrees with the plan is attacked and threatened by Jay and Crow, showing their intentions to be about controlling Life rather than helping it. The lifes of the valley quickly decide the toll plan is not for them, and the rest of the book takes place largely in dialogue over the best possible way to exist.

    Most of the book deals with examples of why interdependence works best. The tale that best shows this is about Randolph Raccoon, an ambitious life who almost destroyed his people and caused a war. Randolph’s tale shows how greed and the desire for power can destroy a life’s internal spirit and their community as well.

    Kjono shares his core belief of interdependence based on love and compassion with more than 300 pages of philosophical debate that extends from the local lifes of the valley to Arthurian legend told to them by the Ancients to a brief introduction of other-worldly aliens to the valley lifes. What begins as an interesting thought experiment quickly becomes a homily. However, Kjono’s supposition of doing your best to support not only yourself, but others around you, without regard for how you benefit, is a noble one.

    Norman E. Kjono has put forth a beautiful philosophy that if one of aspires to do what is best for one’s world, that others will follow suit. And,  as Tree said, “If we start out thinking it can’t be done, the we’ve lost before we begin!”

     

  • An Editorial Review of “Foresight” by Deen Ferrell

    An Editorial Review of “Foresight” by Deen Ferrell

    Willoughby Von Brahmer hates high school, feels restless at home, and fumbles awkwardly around girls, yet is fascinated by the charismatic celebrity violinist his own age, Sydney Senoya. He seems like a pretty typical sixteen-year-old. But when the reader begins to untangle the mysterious web of Foresight, it becomes clear that Willoughby’s life is anything but typical. Foresight is Deen Ferrell’s artful and ambitious first Cryptic Spaces novel.

    Willoughby’s quasi-ordinary life begins to unravel during a routine visit to the barber. Not so ordinary, really: Willoughby is a math prodigy who at twelve solved The Riemann Hypothesis, a puzzle that had stumped mathematicians for centuries. His barber, Antonio Santanos Eldoro Chavez, has extraordinary expertise in architecture. All vestiges of routine evaporate when, during his haircut, Willoughby spies a string of glowing numbers suspended in the air in the corner of Antonio’s shop. Then, everything in the shop freezes except Willoughby himself and a skeletal-faced man appears, nods to Willoughby, and then just as quickly disappears leaving Willoughby shaken but intrigued.

    The story picks its way deliberately through Willoughby’s gradual discovery of a secret society of time travelers, Observations, Inc., apparently headed by the brilliant yet cryptic Hathaway Simon (H. S.), with the support of the enigmatic Sam, who Willoughby has known for years as his family’s chauffeur. Willoughby signs on to join a team of handpicked savants who will explore time itself, but soon learns that Observations, Inc. is not alone in the time-travel business – and their competitors are far less benign.

    The story kicks into high gear during Observations, Inc.’s initial team-building exercise on a “cruise” ship with unusual capabilities, where Willoughby and Antonio meet the talented and mercurial Sydney, as well as James Arthur, an aura-reading healer, and T. K., the cabin girl who, like Sam, is more than she seems. Before the cruise ship’s team embarks on their first mission, a gang of supernatural crooks stages a mutiny.

    Ferrell’s gifted descriptions, from Sydney’s music to the experience of time travel, bring the story to life. The cast of characters is deftly drawn and admirably diverse. Some younger readers may find the density of the plot daunting, but others will revel in the richness of the history and science brought to the subject of time travel and prognostication.

    As the Observation, Inc. team’s voyage of exploration becomes a battle for survival, Willoughby, Sydney and their friends realize they are bound together by more than curiosity. They need each other’s talents, commitment, and compassion if they are to get through time and space alive. Foresight is a rich and complex YA sci-fi story.

     Cryptic Spaces: Book One: Foresight earned  a First in Category position in the Dante Rossetti Awards for Young Adult Fiction, a division of Chanticleer Blue Ribbon Writing Competitions.