Widdershins is back, in her last and most dangerous adventure.
After the events of Lost Covenant (2013), Shins, along with psychic hitchhiker and personal god Olgun, is finally ready to return to Davillon and face the pain and grief she ran from. As usual, she finds herself in the middle of trouble, danger and quip-filled adventures. Davillon has become a hotbed of unrest. Dark rumors and shadowy evils stalk the streets; the bodies of everyone Shins has loved and lost have been exhumed and left in her various safe houses, and Lisette Suvagne, who has dogged Widdershins since the first volume, has taken over the Finder’s Guild term, allied herself with members of the Gloaming Court, and is leading the attack on the city, on the church and on Shins. What’s a thief with a heart of gold to do? As has been true of the series thus far, things get darker with each adventure. Shins must face her own mortality and face up to the fallout (political, interpersonal and paranormal) from her own previous actions and decisions, a fitting finale for a series that has concerned itself with the growth of its protagonist. The prose is purple, the stakes are high, and the ending is exactly right.
Smart fantasy with heart and enough bad puns to last a lifetime. (Fantasy. 13 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-61614-986-4
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Pyr/Prometheus Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises.
28
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What would you do with one day left to live?
In an alternate present, a company named Death-Cast calls Deckers—people who will die within the coming day—to inform them of their impending deaths, though not how they will happen. The End Day call comes for two teenagers living in New York City: Puerto Rican Mateo and bisexual Cuban-American foster kid Rufus. Rufus needs company after a violent act puts cops on his tail and lands his friends in jail; Mateo wants someone to push him past his comfort zone after a lifetime of playing it safe. The two meet through Last Friend, an app that connects lonely Deckers (one of many ways in which Death-Cast influences social media). Mateo and Rufus set out to seize the day together in their final hours, during which their deepening friendship blossoms into something more. Present-tense chapters, short and time-stamped, primarily feature the protagonists’ distinctive first-person narrations. Fleeting third-person chapters give windows into the lives of other characters they encounter, underscoring how even a tiny action can change the course of someone else’s life. It’s another standout from Silvera (History Is All You Left Me, 2017, etc.), who here grapples gracefully with heavy questions about death and the meaning of a life well-lived.
Engrossing, contemplative, and as heart-wrenching as the title promises. (Speculative fiction. 13-adult).Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-245779-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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Two 18-year-olds with traumatic pasts become entangled in a high-stakes manhunt for a serial killer targeting teenagers.
Emma Lewis isn’t your average psychology undergrad (and not just because she has a buzz cut). Two and a half years ago, she escaped a serial killer’s clutches and then helped the authorities apprehend him. Now a student at Ohio State, she’s been recruited for her unique qualifications by an agent in the FBI’s Behavioral Science department to spend the summer interviewing juvenile offenders. Alongside trainee Travis Bell, whose late father was killed while apprehending one of their subjects, Emma reluctantly ventures into the minds of teenage killers—and must confront her own past when one of the subjects offers unexpected insight into the motives of a new killer known as the Butcher. Set in the early 1980s, narrated in present tense, and told through Emma’s perspective as well as others’ (including the Butcher’s), the tightly plotted story moves inexorably forward with shocking twists alongside clear, applicable descriptions of the cognitive behavioral strategies Emma uses to navigate her PTSD. The narrative is critical of law enforcement work, emphasizing its psychological toll, and the '80s cultural references are handled with a light touch. Emma is white while Travis is cued as biracial (Mexican American and white); although most secondary characters appear white, two key figures are people of color.
Vivid, chilling, and important. (author's note) (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-316-49783-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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