Kirkus Thinks I'm Deep

INTO THE WILD got its Kirkus review today. For those not in the biz, Kirkus is one of the big trade journals that does book reviews. (Learn more about this here.) Twice a month they publish reviews of forthcoming books. And Kirkus is notorious for giving harsh reviews. The first two sentences of each is available for free on the Kirkus website, but you need a subscription to read the rest. $37.50 per month! And that's just for online access.

Well, tonight I found my name in the list of reviews. I stared at the first two sentences. They gave no indication of whether the review was good or bad. I stared some more. I realized that I could ask my editor or agent to find out what it said. On Monday! No, that's Memorial Day. On Tuesday! I began to go insane. And then, I did it. I plunked down $37.50 for a month's subscription. This made me feel kinda stupid. (But hey, if I skip lunch for the next few days I'll be even in no time. Right?) And then I was able to read my review. And now I'm much happier.

From the June 1 issue of Kirkus:

"Imagining something called "The Wild," which might eat your shoes while living under your bed, might be easier for a 12-year-old than an adult. But The Wild doesn't stay under Julie's bed for long, and its identity emerges quickly for all readers. Once unleashed, it threatens to take over the entire community where fairy-tale characters live peaceful, ordinary lives in suburban Massachusetts. Set free by someone making a wish at the "Wishing Well Motel," it now re-launches the characters into their stories. Julie, however, blames herself for setting the fairy-tale cycle in motion: She has wished that her mother not be her mother. She's tired of being odd without knowing why, of entertaining the seven dwarves for dinner, of being picked up by Cindy in her orange Subaru and hanging out in the hair salon her mother, Zel, operates. Zel enters The Wild immediately to free the fairy-tale characters and stop its progression. Julie enters it to save her mother—and to learn her true identity and about the absent father she longs for. Deeper than most rewritten fairy tales, this existential story is chunked with big ideas about the fairy-tale genre, yet the story is lightened with touches that will connect with its audience. (Fiction. 10-14)"

I'm deep. :) I like that.

Oh, before I forget. Could someone please remind me to cancel my subscription within the next 29 days? Otherwise I could be paying $37.50 a month for a looooong time...