The Unquiet

THE UNQUIET Carolyn McCurdie, Longacre, 132 pages, paperback, $16.95
ISBN 1-877361-40-2

‘Pluto has disappeared!’
The Unquiet is a remarkable first novel, where two teenagers, Tansy and Anaru, face a terrifying challenge. An imbalance in the solar system has released the Unquiet, a mind-destroying force that is now wiping out parts of the Earth as though they never existed. In a surprising twist, it is the legendary trickster figures from the human past that hold the key to resistance, so Tansy has to outwit Maui.
Carolyn McCurdie’s descriptions of the Unquiet (‘as if the sky was shrieking in agony’) and the way it reduces life to a grim shadowy existence are chillingly convincing, and make this an exciting fantasy with broad implications.

Trevor Agnew

This review first appeared in The Press, Christchurch, New Zealand on 18th March 2006.