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Perfect Circle
by Sean Stewart
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9781931520119 
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Only 1 left in stock at $10.50!
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Sean Stewart's much-anticipated eighth novel is a dark, funny, fast-moving thriller that you won't want to put down. Stewart was the lead author behind the innovative interactive Web game known as "The Beast" (inspired by the film A.I.) which became a break-out cult hit. He is the winner of the Arthur Ellis, Aurora, and World Fantasy awards, and the author of the New York Times Notable Books Mockingbird and Resurrection Man.
William "Dead" Kennedy has problems. He's haunted by family, by dead people with unfinished business, and by those perfect pop songs that you can't get out of your head. He's a 32-year-old Texan still in love with his ex-wife. He just lost his job at PetCo for eating cat food. His air-conditioning is broken, there's no good music on the radio, and he's been dreaming about ghost roads.
When Will's cousin ("My dad married your Aunt Dot's half-sister") calls in the middle of the night about a dead girl haunting his garage, it seems like an easy way to make a thousand dollars. But nothing is ever that simple, especially when family is involved. Will's mother is planning a family reunion of epic proportions. Will's ex-wife is married to a former Marine. His twelve-year-old daughter Megan thinks Will needs someone to look after him. And recently his dead relatives seem to want something from him.
Review:
"Ghosts are like homeless people, we are told by DK 'Dead' Kennedy, the hero of World Fantasy Award winner Stewart's latest blend of magical realism and Texas regionalism: most of us look away, but he can't. This ability to see the other side complicates life tremendously (he can't drive because at night ghosts look just like the living, and he's wrecked cars avoiding them), especially when a distant cousin hires him to exorcise the ghost of a girl the cousin murdered. Part of the novel deals with DK's offbeat career as an alternative exorcist, but what Stewart seems really to focus on is how these abilities now threaten his relationships with family, both immediate and extended. DK still loves his ex-wife and is active in the life of his daughter, but comes to realize that he's like a ghost in their lives: 'Not all ghosts are dead, but all are hungry.' Stewart's compelling account of how DK comes to grips with his ghosts, both actual and metaphorical, is alternately poignant and hilarious, with some genuinely creepy moments and one or two powerful jolts. This compelling story is a genre title with strong potential for crossing over into the mainstream. Agent, Martha Millard. (June 15) Forecast: A blurb from Neal Stephenson will help alert his fans." Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"Dead funny, a little bit scary, and sometimes warm and fuzzy, but not too, among the greatest of Perfect Circle's virtues is that daughter Megan, like father DK, is quirky and totally believable....All-around terrific." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review:
"Stewart's mastery of Will's first-person narration is unflinching and unfaltering. The voice conjured here is absolutely authentic and affecting....And his treatment of the ghosts...is truly eerie." Paul Di Filippo, The Washington Post Book World
Review:
"Stewart is a fine writer who can move quick as an apparition from serviceable prose to startling, often beautiful imagery....Heartbreaking and hilarious...Perfect Circle delivers what the maudlin Sixth Sense never did — a wicked good time." Cleveland Plain Dealer
Review:
"By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, Perfect Circle is...an impressive example of an author using genre resources to stake out a territory that, for the moment at least, no one but he occupies." Locus
Review:
"Stewart's quicksilver wit makes Perfect Circle perfectly hilarious. And, a supremely skilled storyteller, he saves the best for last." Texas Monthly
Review:
"A read-at-one-go novel....Everything is both stated and understated, elegant, full of the mundane horror and fear that inform a normal, frustrated life....And it is well, well worth the reading. A highly recommended work." Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Review:
"Perfect Circle is a perfect read, exciting, unique, everything here but the Second Coming, but, Sean Stewart himself is the prize. What a talent. Write on, my man. Write on." Joe Lansdale, author of Sunset and Sawdust
Review:
"A heartwarmingly sweet novel about what it's really like to be haunted. Sean Stewart's best yet." Sarah Smith, author of Chasing Shakespeares
Review:
"Needy Ghosts, bar fights, concealed weapons, R.E.M., and ramen noodles — Perfect Circle is an irreverent Texas treat. Sean Stewart is one bright, funny writer." Stewart O'Nan, author of The Night Country
Review:
"Will Kennedy has some troublesome relatives. Especially the dead ones. Perfect Circle is Sean Stewart at his spooky, funny, sad, and haunting best." Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
Review:
"Perfect Circle is a ghost story for grown-ups, frightening, funny, and finally redemptive. It kept me up way past my bedtime." Harley Jane Kozak, author of Dating Dead Men
Review:
"I read it all in one gulp, by turns fearful and joyful for Stewart's likable loser protagonist." Cory Doctorow, author of Eastern Standard Tribe
Synopsis:
"All-around terrific."-Booklist (starred review)
"Perfectly hilarious."-Texas Monthly
William "Dead" Kennedy is in trouble. He's thirty-two, in love with his ex-wife, has lost his job, and he's been dreaming about ghost roads again. Sometimes a guy is haunted for a really good reason.
Sean Stewart has written nine novels, including Cathy's Book. He lives in Davis, California.
About the Author
Sean Stewart is the author of the innovative I Love Bees and Beast search operas, two short stories, and the novels Perfect Circle, Mockingbird, Galveston, Clouds End, Nobody's Son, Passion Play, and Resurrection Man.
What Our Readers Are Saying
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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
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crowyhead, June 5, 2007 (view all comments by crowyhead)
Will "Dead" Kennedy (also known as DK) sees dead people. I know this is starting to sound like a cliche, what with "The Sixth Sense" and Dean Koontz's popular "Odd Thomas" trilogy, but Stewart surpasses both of these with this moving, funny, and creepy book. DK's a former Texas punk, still in love with his ex-wife, and very much involved with his twelve-year-old daughter, Megan. In some ways his life is shaped by the dead -- he can't drive a car, for example, because he's gotten in too many accidents braking for ghosts -- but the real haunting is in the form of a past he can't let go. When a cousin of sorts calls DK up because there's a ghost crying in his garage, DK opens up a can of worms in the ghostly world and in his own life.
I started this book yesterday morning, and finished it last night. It's impossible to put down, and it's got one hell of a soundtrack. DK's the kind of protagonist who you root for, want to slap around, and kind of want to dive between the covers of the book to save. I just loved this.
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smophlew, May 31, 2007 (view all comments by smophlew)
the synopsis matches that of firecracker. why does this same book have two names? sophie, cornwall, England.
View all 2 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781931520119
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Small Beer Press
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- General Fiction
- Copyright:
- 2004
- Publication Date:
- July 2004
- Binding:
- Paperback
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 243
- Dimensions:
- 8.42x5.46x.77 in. .75 lbs.
