by Alexander Gordon Smith ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 20, 2013
A devourer from beyond threatens all teens hold dear.
Cal, Daisy and Brick have just been attacked, spit upon and bitten by both people who care about them and complete strangers—and it’s not stopping. As the violence escalates, they learn that teens around the world are being inexplicably targeted by their friends, families and strangers. Taking refuge at an abandoned amusement park, the teens try to provide a safe haven for other victims of this strange fury. However, when a dark void begins destroying parts of London and one of the teens changes into a supernatural being, the refugees realize that the source of their problems may not be an earthly one. Smith crafted a sinister world with a diabolical villain, emotional tension and a touch of the supernatural in the prison-break series Escape from Furnace. He’s attempted to do the same thing with a heftier dose of the supernatural in this doorstopper but with much less success. The narrative is fractured, shared among a host of storytellers, none of whom is particularly engaging. Daisy and Cal share the reversed-fortunes-of-popularity trope, while Brick’s unloved-ginger story is a peculiarly British idiom. Ultimately, the supernatural elements feel like MacGuffins, there to propel meandering action toward meaningless resolution.
Better consigned to the void than the shelf. (Thriller. 12 & up)
Pub Date: Aug. 20, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-374-32495-7
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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by Hafsah Faizal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 2024
Crowd-pleasing fun laced with political fire: a winner.
Bestselling author Faizal returns to the universe of We Hunt the Flame (2019) with a stand-alone duology opener.
Orphaned Arthie, brown-skinned with mauve hair, has created a criminal empire out of sheer pluck despite being Ceylani in Ettenia, where laws favor white people. She pulled legendary pistol Calibore from a stone plinth (though the prophecy that doing so would make her the nation’s leader turned out to be a hoax). She’s also built Spindrift, a teahouse-cum-bloodhouse, where she gathers secrets from wealthy humans and vampires, amassing power and security. Now Arthie has her sights set on vengeance—and the Ram, Ettenia’s masked monarch. When she and Jin, her brother-by-choice (who’s cued East Asian), are drawn into a heist, they assemble a diverse crew of immigrants whose roles riff on genre archetypes. The lush prose pulses with feeling as revelations are dropped and the tension ratchets up, keeping the pages turning as the motley gang plans to infiltrate a vampire society, retrieve a stolen ledger, and double-cross one of the Ram’s guards (who might be planning to double-cross them). Their ultimate goal: taking down the colonizing Ettenians and the exploitative East Jeevant Company. It’s all very exciting right up to the action-packed finale, which promises more conspiracy and (hopefully) justice to come. This compelling read offers interesting commentary on our society while feeling entirely real within the context of its own worldbuilding.
Crowd-pleasing fun laced with political fire: a winner. (map) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Feb. 20, 2024
ISBN: 9780374389406
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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by Neal Shusterman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 29, 2016
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
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Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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