Lovers of bloody fantasy epics will be glad to have another.
An unnamed warrior-child in training needs to defeat the inner demons that enrage her.
Twelve is an acolyte of the Hunters, a group of warriors who sever all prior ties, give up their names, and fight the darkness. Despite her prowess in battle, she’s friendless, prone to lashing out, and desperate to avoid thinking about her painful past. Her solitude ends when the Hunting Lodge is attacked by goblins—and worse. The only girl Twelve even remotely likes, the worst warrior of them all, is kidnapped, and Twelve hurls herself into the monstrous outer world to save her friend. But it seems she won’t be going alone. She’s joined by Dog, a massive stone beast, the irritable (and sometimes funny) fighter who guards the lodge. And soon they’re also joined by Five and Six, the two most hateful boys among the huntlings. At least Twelve can lean on her squirrel friend, Widge, a gift from kidnapped Seven. The northern wilds are a frozen wasteland filled with terrifying monsters, and if the young warriors are to survive they’ll have to learn to trust each other (and themselves). A few threads are left dangling for the next entry in the series. Late-discovered magic provides a deus ex machina in a quest that’s otherwise about inner knowledge and cooperation. All the human characters appear to be White.
Lovers of bloody fantasy epics will be glad to have another. (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299671-8
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy.
Inventively tweaking a popular premise, Jensen pits two Incredibles-style families with superpowers against each other—until a new challenge rises to unite them.
The Johnsons invariably spit at the mere mention of their hated rivals, the Baileys. Likewise, all Baileys habitually shake their fists when referring to the Johnsons. Having long looked forward to getting a superpower so that he too can battle his clan’s nemeses, Rafter Bailey is devastated when, instead of being able to fly or something else cool, he acquires the “power” to strike a match on soft polyester. But when hated classmate Juanita Johnson turns up newly endowed with a similarly bogus power and, against all family tradition, they compare notes, it becomes clear that something fishy is going on. Both families regard themselves as the heroes and their rivals as the villains. Someone has been inciting them to fight each other. Worse yet, that someone has apparently developed a device that turns real superpowers into silly ones. Teaching themselves on the fly how to get past their prejudice and work together, Rafter, his little brother, Benny, and Juanita follow a well-laid-out chain of clues and deductions to the climactic discovery of a third, genuinely nefarious family, the Joneses, and a fiendishly clever scheme to dispose of all the Baileys and Johnsons at once. Can they carry the day?
A solid debut: fluent, funny and eminently sequel-worthy. (Adventure. 10-12)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-220961-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
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