An absorbing, well-developed entry in a remarkable ongoing saga.
In Kim’s fantasy sequel, a powerful beast threatens the existences of a dreamlike realm and the waking world.
Whenever Californian James Mun sleeps, he enters a place called the Flowering. There, he belongs to Crew Blue, along with E, Honey, and Lux, whose job is to kill monstrous “moulded” citizens of the realm. Their latest mission involves the Red Calf, a legendary beast that was defeated and imprisoned in a purple orb, but whom the crew has reason to believe is returning to consume everything in the Flowering. If that happens, the realm will gradually disappear, along with the “dimension of human dreams” and even sleep itself; without slumber, of course, humans will die back in Reality. The Third, who’s one of 12 sightless, formidable Shamans, wants the beast’s power, and specifically its golden eye, to restore each of Shamans’ eyesight. However, the Shamans aren’t trustworthy, with the exception of Snow (aka Twelve) who joins Crew Blue and its allies. James and the rest can materialize weapons for battle out of thin air, but defeating the Red Calf will require unwavering teamwork, as well. This sophomore installment, following Eye in the Blue Box (2025), moves at a slow and deliberate pace, notwithstanding a handful of impeccable action sequences. Kim uses the opportunity to dive deeply into characterization. E, for example, has a thorny history with Kit, and is understandably wary of relying on him as a potential ally. Readers also get more than a glimpse of characters’ lives in Reality, where they go by different names. There’s plenty of tension as well, as getting to the Red Calf necessitates encounters with vicious individuals and, in one Crew member’s case, entering a dangerous tournament. Other highlights include an endearing reunion between Bloom (a giant blue wolf and an original Crew Blue member) and his colorful wolf pack, along with well-earned, heartfelt moments as the characters’ bonds strengthen further.
An absorbing, well-developed entry in a remarkable ongoing saga.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2026
ISBN: 9798992555547
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.
A dark fantasy set on the Yale campus ends with a bang.
Galaxy “Alex” Stern of Lethe House, one of Yale’s storied secret societies, has been to hell and back. That was in Hell Bent (2023), the middle book in Bardugo’s Ninth House trilogy, where the secret societies wield not just temporal power but magic as well. Hell Bent ended with Alex and her friends rescuing her crush, mentor, and fellow Lethe officer, Daniel “Darlington” Arlington V, from eternal torment. One small wrinkle: The demon Golgarot used Alex’s blood to wedge a door open between Hell and New Haven, and his minions are slipping through. Also, one of the group has turned into a vampire, and Darlington is now half demon. “He’d given up some part of himself to preserve the rest of his human soul. He’d become both prisoner and warden.” As the final book opens, the exhausted crew are hunting yet another monster. They can’t keep this up forever; they will have to find a way to close the portal. Alex has the energetic, driven melancholy of the hard-boiled, dark fantasy heroine she is. She believes “magic is real, but safe is make-believe,” as her roommate puts it. An open hellmouth, a supportive scholar, a vampire whose story arcs precariously toward redemption, a gentleman fiend who gets literally horny when aroused, a California girl with rare supernatural powers who cracks wise as she fights fiends—the series has a lot in common with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spawn, but Bardugo’s way with words and her keen social observation keep the book from feeling derivative. A demon’s classic New England house is decorated with “ruthlessly inoffensive watercolor seascapes”; Lethe’s board president “wore the new uniform of Wall Street: a dress shirt, khakis, and a fleece with a Yale Y embroidered over the heart, as if he were on his way to a hostile takeover followed by some light rock climbing.” Will Alex and her friends get the door shut without losing Darlington? Bardugo injects her protagonist with such a convincing mix of cynicism and hope that failure seems like a distinct possibility.
Sharp writing, vivid characters, and puzzle box plotting bring the trilogy to a ringing conclusion.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781250884312
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2026
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.
On the orders of her mother, a woman goes to dragon-riding school.
Even though her mother is a general in Navarre’s army, 20-year-old Violet Sorrengail was raised by her father to follow his path as a scribe. After his death, though, Violet's mother shocks her by forcing her to enter the elite and deadly dragon rider academy at Basgiath War College. Most students die at the War College: during training sessions, at the hands of their classmates, or by the very dragons they hope to one day be paired with. From Day One, Violet is targeted by her classmates, some because they hate her mother, others because they think she’s too physically frail to succeed. She must survive a daily gauntlet of physical challenges and the deadly attacks of classmates, which she does with the help of secret knowledge handed down by her two older siblings, who'd been students there before her. Violet is at the mercy of the plot rather than being in charge of it, hurtling through one obstacle after another. As a result, the story is action-packed and fast-paced, but Violet is a strange mix of pure competence and total passivity, always managing to come out on the winning side. The book is categorized as romantasy, with Violet pulled between the comforting love she feels from her childhood best friend, Dain Aetos, and the incendiary attraction she feels for family enemy Xaden Riorson. However, the way Dain constantly undermines Violet's abilities and his lack of character development make this an unconvincing storyline. The plots and subplots aren’t well-integrated, with the first half purely focused on Violet’s training, followed by a brief detour for romance, and then a final focus on outside threats.
Read this for the action-packed plot, not character development or worldbuilding.Pub Date: May 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781649374042
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Red Tower
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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