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FEAR THE DROWNING DEEP

Mostly seaworthy.

A young woman battles sea monsters in this turn-of-the-20th-century fantasy set on the Isle of Man.

Sixteen-year-old Bridey Corkill has hated the sea ever since it lured her grandfather to his death when she was 9. Until she can realize her dream of leaving her small fishing village to become a London shop girl, she reluctantly takes a job working for old Morag, who has a reputation as a witch. When Bridey’s female neighbors begin to disappear one by one around the same time that Bridey sees an ominous black fin in the harbor, only Morag agrees that something monstrous from the ocean is to blame. Could it be the same beast that took Grandad? Meanwhile, Bridey discovers a handsome naked stranger she dubs Fynn washed up on the shore and quickly falls for him. Fynn claims amnesia but is soon accused by the villagers of murdering the missing women. Bridey must confront her fear of the water and the monsters within if she hopes to save Fynn and discover the truth about the missing villagers. Marsh’s prose is often overdone (“the frigid fingers of a northern wind penetrated the hot kitchen”), and romance-novel clichés abound (“Then his mouth was on mine, hot, damp, salty”). Still, the Manx setting is an unusual (albeit all-white) one that’s rich in folklore, and this watery take on “Beauty and the Beast” will be catnip to paranormal-romance readers.

Mostly seaworthy. (author's note, glossary) (Fantasy. 12 & up)

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-5107-0348-3

Page Count: 310

Publisher: Sky Pony Press

Review Posted Online: Aug. 1, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016

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WHEN YOU REACH ME

Some might guess at the baffling, heart-pounding conclusion, but when all the sidewalk characters from Miranda’s Manhattan...

When Miranda’s best friend Sal gets punched by a strange kid, he abruptly stops speaking to her; then oddly prescient letters start arriving.

They ask for her help, saying, “I'm coming to save your friend's life, and my own.” Readers will immediately connect with Miranda’s fluid first-person narration, a mix of Manhattan street smarts and pre-teen innocence. She addresses the letter writer and recounts the weird events of her sixth-grade year, hoping to make sense of the crumpled notes. Miranda’s crystalline picture of her urban landscape will resonate with city teens and intrigue suburban kids. As the letters keep coming, Miranda clings to her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time, and discusses time travel with Marcus, the nice, nerdy boy who punched Sal. Keen readers will notice Stead toying with time from the start, as Miranda writes in the present about past events that will determine her future.

Some might guess at the baffling, heart-pounding conclusion, but when all the sidewalk characters from Miranda’s Manhattan world converge amid mind-blowing revelations and cunning details, teen readers will circle back to the beginning and say, “Wow...cool.” (Fiction. 12 & up)

Pub Date: July 14, 2009

ISBN: 978-0-385-73742-5

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Wendy Lamb/Random

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2009

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THE RIG

A solid genre outing.

In the near future, an incarcerated teen with a reputation for escape attempts is moved to a new, maximum-security facility called the Rig, an oil-drilling platform in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, now converted to use as a prison.

Fifteen-year-old William Drake is a likable, tough-talking narrator who hails from London, the son of an African-American father and a Polish mother. True to hard-boiled type, Drake keeps to himself and resists making friends, even as he makes enemies of the worst baddies by defending weaker kids from them and is won over by the Rig's kindly psychologist, Dr. Lambros. Flavoring the third-person narration with some great one-liners (“She had the voice of a lifelong smoker thrown in a blender”), Ducie takes his time setting the stage for the action-packed second half of the novel, with Drake carefully plotting an escape that involves the skills of his hacker cellmate, Tristan, and the knowledge of Irene, a fellow prisoner who hints at a conspiracy that eventually blows up in their faces. All the elements of a great thriller are here—sinister villains, a stoic hero with a heart of gold, even mutated sharks. If some of these details seem a bit familiar to seasoned action-adventure fans, there is still plenty to keep them engaged, and the open-ended conclusion suggests there may be more to come.

A solid genre outing. (Thriller. 13-18)

Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-544-50311-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: HMH Books

Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015

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