An offbeat, overly stuffed, darkly intense modern fairy tale.
A girl becomes determined to break a curse.
When pale-skinned, red-haired Sylvie discovers a job opening at Bison Gap Prairie Preserve, the environmental nonprofit in Nebraska where her late mother volunteered as a teen, it seems like magic. Having little knowledge of her mother thanks to her father’s stonewalling, she’s desperate for answers, and as a budding herbalist she’s well-suited to the foraging and kitchen-craft the position requires. Despite the constant intrusion of her OCD, especially in her obsessive longing to be beautiful and seek out beautiful people, by day Sylvie develops a fast friendship with Jack, a boy with “startlingly blue” eyes whose skin is “scaly and pimpled and peeling and flaking.” By night, she forms an electric connection with an impossibly handsome blue-eyed, golden-skinned shepherd, her companion on forbidden nighttime excursions. Convinced that a terrifying monster is stalking the countryside, Sylvie focuses on breaking a curse she’s discovered. A new discovery may offer her that power, though not the foresight to see the outcome of her impulsive decision. Bruzas interestingly juxtaposes a timeless fairy-tale atmosphere with contemporary technology, but the inclusion of numerous insufficiently developed thematic elements makes for a difficult read. Sylvie’s plentiful OCD symptoms are effectively woven into the plot, but tracking all the threads—her familial mystery, a love triangle with steamy romantic interludes, inheritance drama, botanical information, generational magic, and spider-filled dreams, among others—becomes overwhelming.
An offbeat, overly stuffed, darkly intense modern fairy tale. (content note, author’s note) (Fantasy. 15-18)Pub Date: July 14, 2026
ISBN: 9780593859179
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Rocky Pond Books/Penguin
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues...
He’s in remission from the osteosarcoma that took one of his legs. She’s fighting the brown fluid in her lungs caused by tumors. Both know that their time is limited.
Sparks fly when Hazel Grace Lancaster spies Augustus “Gus” Waters checking her out across the room in a group-therapy session for teens living with cancer. He’s a gorgeous, confident, intelligent amputee who always loses video games because he tries to save everyone. She’s smart, snarky and 16; she goes to community college and jokingly calls Peter Van Houten, the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, her only friend besides her parents. He asks her over, and they swap novels. He agrees to read the Van Houten and she agrees to read his—based on his favorite bloodbath-filled video game. The two become connected at the hip, and what follows is a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive Van Houten to their hilariously flirty repartee, readers will swoon on nearly every page. Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire. He takes on Big Questions that might feel heavy-handed in the words of any other author: What do oblivion and living mean? Then he deftly parries them with humor: “My nostalgia is so extreme that I am capable of missing a swing my butt never actually touched.” Dog-earing of pages will no doubt ensue.
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues to make it through Hazel and Gus’ poignant journey. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-47881-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Only marginally intriguing.
In a remote part of Utah, in a “temple of excellence,” the best of the best are recruited to nurture their talents.
Redemption Preparatory is a cross between the Vatican and a top-secret research facility: The school is rooted in Christian ideology (but very few students are Christian), Mass is compulsory, cameras capture everything, and “maintenance” workers carry Tasers. When talented poet Emma disappears, three students, distrusting of the school administration, launch their own investigation. Brilliant chemist Neesha believes Emma has run away to avoid taking the heat for the duo’s illegal drug enterprise. Her boyfriend, an athlete called Aiden, naturally wants to find her. Evan, a chess prodigy who relies on patterns and has difficulty processing social signals, believes he knows Emma better than anyone. While the school is an insidious character on its own and the big reveal is slightly psychologically disturbing, Evan’s positioning as a tragic hero with an uncertain fate—which is connected to his stalking of Emma (even before her disappearance)—is far more unsettling. The ’90s setting provides the backdrop for tongue-in-cheek technological references but doesn’t do anything for the plot. Student testimonials and voice-to-text transcripts punctuate the three-way third-person narration that alternates among Neesha, Evan, and Aiden. Emma, Aiden, and Evan are assumed to be white; Neesha is Indian. Students are from all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
Only marginally intriguing. (Mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266203-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
