Joey Madia, New Mystics Reviews

 It is always both a pleasure and a challenge to review a novelist’s debut creation. In the wise words of W. Somerset Maugham: “There are three rules for the writing of a novel. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.” The success of this young adult/teen fiction novel, which I believe seventh to ninth graders will best enjoy, hinges on the acceptance of Magical Realism as its dominant device. From the first appearance of a mysterious headdress to a series of dangerous and arguably should-be-fatal experiences the novel’s trio of heroes survive against the odds, to their encounters with Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, if one focuses on the adventure and the characters’ experience of it, and not the implausibility of individual events and circumstances, this debut novel succeeds. The central characters are 13-year-old middle school students Katelyn and Eva, who have been friends since the second grade. Like characters in a fairy tale, Cyril’s characters do not have a great deal o

  (Self-published, 2024). ISBN: 978-1-304-32531-0 Let me be up front. I am a longtime fan of this gifted writer and artist. His comic strip about two Moai on Easter Island, Monumental , is exclusive to my art and literary site, New Mystics. Pendleton illustrated the covers of two of my novels, as well as doing many additional illustrations for them. I am honored to have his art throughout my home. A few decades ago, I was privileged to read some of his unpublished short stories, about false memories, among other provocative topics. One scene in particular, involving a man in a bar getting a full-body tattoo, has stayed with me as though I read it yesterday. But I am not doing this review to talk in depth about any of those projects. The subject matter at hand is his long-awaited novel, More Argonauts: Another Argonautica . If you like Greek—and many other—myths, then this is a book for you. By way of warning (and no reader really should be warned, nor any writer have to suffer the