Uneven time-traveling entertainment.
A teen boy discovers he is a time jumper when he ends up in Anglo-Saxon England.
Daniel Renfrew is a lonely 16-year-old, home-schooled by his professor father on topics that range from obscure historical facts and Latin verbs to hands-on lessons using medieval weapons. One day, Prof. Renfrew is confronted at home by a mysterious man who demands something from him. In the ensuing attack, Dad gives Dan a device and directions to follow, sending Dan back in time to England in the year 1066, when King Harold II is about to face his biggest challenge yet. There, Dan befriends Sam, who is also from the modern world. Dan learns that he and his father come from a long line of time jumpers pledged to keep the timeline safe. Sam supports those engaged in an ongoing war against a time-jumper faction bent on changing history. If he ever hopes to go back to his own time, Dan needs to put to good use everything his father has taught him to ensure history happens as it’s meant to. This first entry in a series following Dan on his time jumps is a mixed bag. Fun adventure and an interesting historical background clash with a narrative voice that sounds too young for the characters’ ages and too superficial to adequately explore what they endure. Gender bias against girls within the time-jumping community feels outdated. Most characters are assumed White.
Uneven time-traveling entertainment. (Historical fantasy. 12-18)Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781945501821
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Imbrifex Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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