Distinctive characters and magic-infused action should leave readers craving the next volume.
Teens with elemental powers become the first students in three millennia to attend a school, which shadowy forces have targeted, in this launch of a YA fantasy series.
In the world of Gaia, the three Elemential Schools are Fujita (Wind and Wisdom), Sereni (Water), and GroundStone (Earth and Rock). Each sends its top four students to attend Harahm’be in the Valley of Gaia, the first time in over 3,000 years the former School of Fire has accepted students. S’rae is an outcast at Fujita because, unlike richer schoolmates, she wasn’t born in the Wind region. But she’s excited that her adoptive brother, Vayp, is at Harahm’be, as the two haven’t seen each other in years. Vayp is a troublemaker at GroundStone; he and S’rae don’t make friends easily but soon display impressive abilities at the school’s arena. Meanwhile, Harahm’be Headmaster, Gabrael, the God of Fire and King of Gods, reads to the students from the enigmatic Book of Eve. It largely centers on Destrou, “the boy who never lived,” and S’rae sees parallels between her life and Destrou’s. Meanwhile, a traitor reveals the school’s secret location to a villain controlling giant lethal robots (Mechas) and plotting an attack on Harahm’be. The anonymous author introduces a magical world while skillfully incorporating recognizable adolescent turmoil. S’rae’s bully from Fujita, for example, joins her at Harahm’be, and initially unlikable Vayp bullies delightfully kooky Han’sael. Dialogue, even within the Book of Eve, befits the teen characters, who see things as “awesome” or “sooo amazing.” Han’sael’s speech is particularly bizarre but often amusing: “I’m sorriorry....” The novel’s action scenes showcase different students’ various powers as well as the formidable Mechas—and even deadlier PriMechas. While this book is clearly setting up future series installments, there’s a resolution (e.g., the traitor’s identity) and twisty conclusion. Rykyart’s illustrations are awash in color as characters are silhouetted against resplendent backdrops of blues, greens, etc.
Distinctive characters and magic-infused action should leave readers craving the next volume.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73278-841-1
Page Count: 481
Publisher: DreamWords Publishing, LLC
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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