Scholte’s stand-alone debut marks her as an author to watch.
A thief is endangered by accidentally acquired regicidal evidence.
Keralie, a top thief working for her childhood friend Mackiel, steals a case of comm chips—technology that holds embedded memories and implants them in another person’s mind—from a messenger. When Varin, the messenger, who has a degenerative eye condition, coerces Keralie into helping him recover them, they run afoul of Mackiel and—as a power play—Keralie ingests the comm chips, receiving memories of Quadara’s queens being assassinated. In each of Quadara’s four quadrants, a queen lives and rules, following strict laws. Other than Keralie’s, the other viewpoints in the book are close third-person following the queens, revealing palace secrets and their grisly ends while they try to find the assassin, interspersed with Varin and Keralie’s efforts to stay alive while figuring out what to do with the information they have. This structure relies on timeline manipulation, which is deftly handled and results in exponential payoffs the deeper into the book the reader gets. The inventive worldbuilding, though occasionally superficial, features vastly different quadrant cultures (e.g., one high tech, one without electricity). The distinctive characters—strong queens and wonderfully flawed Keralie—are as appealing as the murder-mystery plot. Most characters are white like Keralie; Varin has dark hair and tan skin, and two of the queens are dark-skinned.
Scholte’s stand-alone debut marks her as an author to watch. (Fantasy. 13-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51392-6
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A concise, thoughtful narrative that challenges the concept and ideals of allyship through an unexpected lens.
A white Ivy League student reconsiders his racial and class privilege when he runs for student government.
After the death of his best friend, Manny Rivers—a Black teenager who was fatally shot by an off-duty cop—Jared Peter Christensen realized that his whiteness and wealth protected him from the bigotry that Manny couldn’t escape. Now a rising junior at an elite college in Connecticut, Jared wants to make a meaningful impact on the world. He’s also determined to block John Preston LePlante IV, a self-proclaimed “blue-blooded Florida boy,” from winning junior class council president. But Jared’s plans are thrown for a loop when he meets Dylan Marie Coleman, a Black transfer student who enters the campus election. Initially guarded, Dylan opens up to Jared, and a mutual yet fragile romantic attraction blooms. As Jared tries to sort out his conflicting feelings, he writes letters to Manny. Can he earn Dylan’s heart and—more importantly—shed his old habits? In this final installment of Stone’s trilogy that began with Dear Martin (2017), Jared’s fraught journey is depicted with nuance, emotional honesty, and accessible realism. Through his mistakes, Jared learns about the insidious consequences of white supremacy and his complicity in a corrupt system. The positive ending rightfully doesn’t fully resolve all the lingering questions, and readers will wonder if Jared continues to evolve or if his resolutions are fleeting promises.
A concise, thoughtful narrative that challenges the concept and ideals of allyship through an unexpected lens. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593308011
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Dec. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
A meditation and adventure quest offering solace to anyone bearing an unfair burden.
What does it mean to come into your own power by letting go of it?
The villagers of Empalme devoutly pray to Solís, the feared higher power who unleashed La Quema, or fire, on humanity for its ills of greed, war, and jealousy. As the village cuentista, Xochitl listens to and receives the villagers’ stories into her body, clearing their consciences, preventing the manifestation of their nightmares, and releasing them to Solís in the desert. Having diligently played this role since childhood, she is now a deeply lonesome 16-year-old whose only comfort comes from cherished poems. Worn weary by her role, she leaves on an odyssey in search of another way to exist. In their sophomore novel, Oshiro deftly weaves an intricate, allegorical, and often gory tale within a post-apocalyptic desert setting that readers will feel so viscerally they may very well need to reach for a glass of water. It is a world parallel to ours, rife with Biblical references and the horrific traps that Latinx immigrants face while seeking better lives. Xochitl’s first-person, questioning narration—interlaced with terrifying cuentos that she receives on her journey—is the strongest voice, although secondary and tertiary characters, both human and mythical, are given a tenderness and humanity. All main characters are Latinx, and queer relationships are integrated with refreshing normality.
A meditation and adventure quest offering solace to anyone bearing an unfair burden. (Fantasy/horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-16921-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
