Often heady and helmed by a complicated protagonist but frustratingly lacking in mystery. (Fiction. 14-18)
A girl with a penchant for starting fires is sent to live with her estranged father, but she can’t break her dangerous habit—and now someone’s watching her.
Jenny Breland moves from suburban Ohio to an under-construction motel in New Mexico, where her father works. She’s there to start a new life—there’s an arson investigation back home that she needs to be far away from. Visions of fire haunt her, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop setting things ablaze; the scar on her arm begs for release, so she finds matches and takes to the trees. Jenny makes friends quickly, including Ro, a scrappy girl who hangs around the motel, and Ben, a handsome boy she’s drawn to. But as she attempts to acclimate to her new life, violence flares around her. People she knows are found murdered, and Jenny’s certain she’s being watched. She must figure out who knows her secret and what they want with her before it’s too late. Though tension steadily climbs, the perpetrator can be spotted early on. For all of Jenny’s wiles, it’s difficult to understand why she doesn’t figure it out sooner. The true satisfaction comes in learning the full story of Jenny’s past and in understanding both her and the villain’s twisty inner workings. Major characters are assumed white.
Often heady and helmed by a complicated protagonist but frustratingly lacking in mystery. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-0093-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
A powerful tale of found family and first love.
After a year away, Ellis returns home to confront her past.
Graduating from high school far from everything familiar was not part of Ellis Truman’s original plans, but she nevertheless ended up spending her senior year with her aunt in California. In Indiana, Ellis practically grew up with the Albrey family and their three tightknit sons, Dixon, Tucker, and Easton. Now, Tucker wants her to return home for matriarch Sandry Albrey’s 50th birthday celebration on the Fourth of July—but Ellis is dreading seeing Easton, as they haven’t talked since she left. Chapters alternate between past and present, and much of the story unravels slowly: How did she come to live with the Albreys? What caused Ellis to then end up in San Diego? What happened in her relationship with Easton? Patient readers will find the heartfelt tension pays off. With her father in and out of jail and an absent mother, socio-economic differences separating Ellis from the middle-class Albreys don’t go unnoticed, and Ellis’ down-to-earth journey shows how she unpacks her feelings about her relationship with her parents. The slow-build romance is swoonworthy, and young adult fans of Colleen Hoover seeking emotional devastation and unforgettable characters will find much to enjoy here. Characters read as White.
A powerful tale of found family and first love. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 10, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-308853-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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