Summer’s real troubles are marred by the inclusion of fantastical Kurt and the predictably pat ending.
Summer finds herself living with her mother in Paris while attempting to finish high school so she will be eligible to inherit her grandfather’s fortune.
It seems unlikely that 19-year-old Summer will finish a four-year college degree by age 22, a stipulation of her grandfather’s will. Her mother bemoans Summer’s lack of academic progress but prioritizes work travel over helping Summer succeed. Lonely, Summer believes a boyfriend could make all the difference and soon finds herself the subject of interest of two boys. Kurt, a handsome but also slightly menacing stranger she first meets on the Métro, encourages Summer to pursue the activities that are most dangerous to her—drinking and indulging in suicidal fantasies. Moony, however, is the picture of stability, encouraging Summer to study and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. It’s possible the two boys are meant to create an engaging love triangle, but Kurt is so obviously a terrible choice (and part of a pretty obvious plot twist) that Moony quickly becomes the only logical outcome—though considering her mistreatment of him, his love for Summer is occasionally puzzling. The novel does capture some of the crushing feelings of inadequacy that contribute to Summer’s growing interest in suicide, but overall, her emotional and addiction struggles wrap up very quickly.
Summer’s real troubles are marred by the inclusion of fantastical Kurt and the predictably pat ending. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-06443-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin’s Griffin
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
Heart-pounding.
A gay, transgender brujo with burgeoning powers seeks answers about his cousin’s death.
Sixteen-year-old Yadriel also wishes for acknowledgement from his community but unexpectedly finds himself entangled in the unresolved wishes of a strong-willed, good-looking spirit. He descends from a long line of brujx who have been granted magic power by Lady Death to heal the living and to guide spirits into the afterlife. Although he’s grown up surrounded by a close-knit community, Yadriel feels alone, excluded indefinitely from a sacred rite of passage because he is transgender. When he senses that his cousin Miguel has died suddenly but the family can’t locate him, Yadriel sees an opportunity to prove to everyone he’s a true brujo by solving the mystery and releasing his cousin’s lost spirit. His plan quickly falls apart, as he accidentally summons the spirit of Julian Diaz, a boy with unfinished business who died the same day as Miguel. Both the romance and mystery burn slow and hot until the climax. Stakes begin high, and the intensity only increases with a looming deadline and a constant risk that Julian might lose himself, turning maligno. The cast of characters represents a diversity of Latinx identities sharing a community in East Los Angeles. Julian is Colombian while Yadriel is Cuban and Mexican. Their romance provides joyful, ground-breaking representation for gay, transgender boys.
Heart-pounding. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-25046-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Swoon Reads/Macmillan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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
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