A poignant and wistful fantasy with two entertaining protagonists.
Simpson’s YA time-travel adventure and romance is set on the tragic 1912 maiden voyage of the Titanic.
Readers meet 17-year-old Charlotte (Charlie) Landers in present-day California on her surfboard. She is about to face the most difficult challenge of her young life: Charlie has inherited her parents’ unique gene sequence: With the aid of a special pin, she can travel through time. She is entering her junior year of high school at the Windline Academy for potential time travelers. If she makes it through high school successfully, she will be issued her own time-travel pin. Charlie must pass the Academy’s Junior Year and Senior Year Tests, in which the students are sent to a time and place in the past where they must complete specific tasks. After a series of interviews and evaluations, Charlie, who is not so excited about time travel (“In my opinion, history and art could be learned while comfortably seated in a plastic chair in a classroom”), learns her assignment: She is to board the infamous Titanic, locate and retrieve an elaborately, jewel-bedecked copy of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám (currently sitting on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean), and return to the present before the ship sinks. An unidentified “Minder,” taking his or her Senior Year Test, will be sent to observe. There is one major caveat—she is to do nothing that will disturb the time continuum. Simpson has done her research; she brings the Titanic to life with sumptuous, detailed descriptions of the ship’s décor, the fashions on display, the food, and many of its notable passengers and crew. In addition to being an action-packed adventure, the narrative raises a quintessential question of morality: Can Charlie, knowing that some 1,500 people will soon die in the frigid Atlantic, really refrain from trying to prevent the tragedy? There is also a delightful embedded love story involving Charlie and her Minder, who is also her lifelong friend and nemesis. Simpson’s well-scripted dialogue captures the manners and linguistic structure of the period, with amusing instances of miscommunication when Charlie slips and uses 20th-century terminology.
A poignant and wistful fantasy with two entertaining protagonists.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring.
When Death-Cast doesn’t call, fate intertwines the lives of two boys, both haunted by their pasts and with futures they can’t escape.
In this third installment of the series that opened with 2017’s They Both Die at the End, Paz Dario waits every night for Death-Cast to call—as it should have for his father nearly 10 years ago, when Paz shot him to save his mother’s life. But the call never comes. Death-Cast killed Paz’s dreams of an acting career: No one will hire him now because the world sees him as a villain. When Paz tries (not for the first time) to put an end to his suffering, an unexpected encounter with Alano Rosa, the heir of Death-Cast, stops him. Both in a place of desperation, Alano and Paz sign a contract to live for Begin Days instead of waiting for their End Days. As suspenseful and emotionally wrenching as the previous titles in the series, this new installment explores heavy themes of abuse, mental health, self-harm, and suicide. Paz grapples with a recent diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. Silvera surrounds Alano and Paz with a web of complex relationships. Although the protagonists fall fast for one another and form a deep connection over Alano’s desire to support Paz, Silvera emphasizes the importance of professional help. Both Alano and Paz have Puerto Rican heritage. The cliffhanger ending promises more to come.
Raw, delicate, and deeply caring. (content warning, resources) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780063240858
Page Count: 720
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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