Tuesday, November 20, 2012

THE HAUNTING OF PICO_Review


The Haunting of PicoThe Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of The Haunting of Pico by Patrick Kampman

I was fortunate to win a copy of this novel via the Goodreads First Reads program. It’s delightful, winning, and very well done. The underscoring tension between good and evil, multicultural diversity and bigotry, selflessness and self-centeredness, humility and hubris, is deftly woven and no threads are dropped. Mr. Kampman is also particularly skilled at characterization just as much as he is at plotting; and readers will immediately find themselves drawn into the story, and upon finishing, wishing it could continue.

Chris and his family transfer from San Jose, California, to Pico, Texas consequent on his father’s career. Chris, fifteen, and his sister Eve, fourteen, are both of South Korean lineage, each adopted in infancy, but not related genetically, raised by Caucasian Irish parents. In California, that didn’t seem odd; in Pico, the occasional Hispanic is about as “exotic” as the town gets, and as Chris and Eve quickly discover in the unfolding plotting, this community has a long history of racism and white tyranny.

This town also has ghosts, other entities, and a statistically inexplicably high rate of missing persons disappearances. For all of these, there are reasons, and Chris and Eve , along with their new friends, are persevering to find out the truth.


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