Intriguing but lacking in impact.
Love blooms between two best friends in a magical town grieving a tragic loss.
Raf and Yas have been best friends since the former’s home was destroyed and his people fled to Moonlight Bay via the enchanted Golub tree in the Willow Forest. Despite warnings from his community elders, Raf decides to confess his romantic feelings to Yas—but he finds her with Moses, the Holler Candy empire heir. The golden leaf–shaped birthmark burns against Raf’s wrist, and he runs to the shoreline, where he discovers 5-year-old Sammy Holler dead. Now, a year later, Moonlight Bay is struggling—the Hollers have moved away, the once pink-and-lavender waters have turned dark gray, several local businesses have shut down, and tensions between the locals and the Golubs are rising. Yas, whose parents are struggling to make ends meet, faces the prospect of leaving her hometown. Raf, once excited about college, becomes resigned to staying home to support his family. When the wealthy Naismiths move into the Holler Mansion, the townspeople are desperate to make them stay, but Yas and Raf question what their true intentions are in Moonlight Bay. Saeed takes readers on a gentle exploration of losing faith, finding yourself, and grief’s impact on a community. Unfortunately, the slow-burn romance is sluggish, and the secondary characters feel underdeveloped. Readers who don’t mind light worldbuilding that allows them to imagine details for themselves may enjoy this lightly magical story. Characters are racially ambiguous.
Intriguing but lacking in impact. (Fabulism. 12-17)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9780593326466
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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A meditation on a timely subject that never forgets to put its characters and their stories first
An Afghani-Australian teen named Mina earns a scholarship to a prestigious private school and meets Michael, whose family opposes allowing Muslim refugees and immigrants into the country.
Dual points of view are presented in this moving and intelligent contemporary novel set in Australia. Eleventh-grader Mina is smart and self-possessed—her mother and stepfather (her biological father was murdered in Afghanistan) have moved their business and home across Sydney in order for her to attend Victoria College. She’s determined to excel there, even though being surrounded by such privilege is a culture shock for her. When she meets white Michael, the two are drawn to each other even though his close-knit, activist family espouses a political viewpoint that, though they insist it is merely pragmatic, is unquestionably Islamophobic. Tackling hard topics head-on, Abdel-Fattah explores them fully and with nuance. True-to-life dialogue and realistic teen social dynamics both deepen the tension and provide levity. While Mina and Michael’s attraction seems at first unlikely, the pair’s warmth wins out, and readers will be swept up in their love story and will come away with a clearer understanding of how bias permeates the lives of those targeted by it.
A meditation on a timely subject that never forgets to put its characters and their stories first . (Fiction. 12-17)Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-338-11866-7
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
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