An overworn concept ineptly executed.
A self-absorbed, risk-averse teen with a secret crush finds herself reliving the last day of a class trip to Paris.
Atop the Eiffel Tower, Eve, 14, summons the nerve to tell Jace she likes him only to discover him kissing her best friend, Reggie. Eve witnesses pretty, popular Reggie buy a love lock to seal her romance with Jace from a mysterious palm reader, who gives Eve a key and cryptic advice. Later, Eve uses her key to open the lock and hurls it in the Seine. Next morning, she awakens to relive the awful day, the first of many repeats that lead her to focus on what she has power to change, including her reaction to her parents’ imminent divorce. As each iteration brings new developments and oracular pronouncements from the palm reader, Eve discovers she’s not the only one reliving that day. Borrowing a popular plot device familiar from the film Groundhog Day (1993) and studded with Parisian tourist-attraction references, the novel fails to persuade. Eve and the challenges she must overcome—parental divorce, unfamiliar foods, jealousy, and lack of empathy—are real but universal, too commonplace to merit occult intervention, the stakes too low to justify the effort. Repetition reinforces both the book’s structural weaknesses and Eve’s character flaws. Eve appears white; while a few names and references to skin color and/or hairstyle imply diversity, characters are largely interchangeable. A concluding paragraph hints at a sequel set in Rome.
An overworn concept ineptly executed. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: July 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63163-437-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Jolly Fish Press
Review Posted Online: March 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stewart and Riddell cap their Edge Chronicles with a large-scale grand tour and cast reunion. Several generations after the events in Freeglader (2004), young orphan Nate Quarter is forced to flee for his life from a murderous mine supervisor—which becomes more or less a theme as, acquiring such doughty companions as the mine owner’s intrepid daughter Eudoxia and Librarian Knight Zelphyius Dax along the way, he comes and goes from Great Glade and several other cities or settlements that have grown up in the vast Deep Woods that border the overhanging Edge of the world. The long journey takes him through multiple battles, chases, rescues and political upheavals to mystical encounters with figures from the past in the ever-dark Night Woods and then on to a climax in the restored airborne city of Sanctaphrax. A huge cast teeming with multiple races of uneasily coexistent goblins, trolls and more, plus Dementor-ish gloamglozers and other deadly predators are all depicted in lovingly minute (and occasionally gruesome) detail in Riddell’s many pen-and-ink portraits and add plenty of color to this vigorous sendoff. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-375-83743-2
Page Count: 688
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
There are hints that Ash may have unfinished business with India and its gods—let’s hope so.
This fantasy riffs on events from the Ramayana—the takeoff point for a knock-down, drag-out adventure that draws a 13-year-old into the unfinished business of the Indian gods.
A Londoner visiting his uncle and aunt in India, Ash Mistry’s first mistake is picking up an ancient gold arrowhead that involves him and his younger sister Lucky in business left from India’s legendary past; his second mistake is refusing to surrender the ancient weapon to the (very obvious) villain, Alexander Savage, and his rakshashas (demons). As is often true in fantasy quests, characters appear and disappear after helping or hindering the hero. The narrative arc is carried forward at first by the direct unfolding of Ash’s discovery and Savage’s hunt for the arrowhead. In addition, there are flashbacks that key readers in to Rama’s story. These provide vital information in a highly palatable way but also take some liberties with the original legend. A rousing and breathtaking climax supports the tied-up threads of the ending. Nonstop action and likable teen characters will attract fans of fantasy quests such as the Percy Jackson books and the saga of Nicholas Flamel.
There are hints that Ash may have unfinished business with India and its gods—let’s hope so. (Fantasy. 11-14)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-38516-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Levine/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
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