A thrilling, page-turning must-read: prescient and necessary, impressive and disturbing.
A 17-year-old girl leading a hardscrabble existence in a post-apocalyptic society controlled by the all-encompassing corporation Caerus fights to survive.
Inesa Yael Soulis lives with her younger brother, Luka, and their cruel mother in the waterlogged Lower Esopus neighborhood. While Inesa is working at the family taxidermy shop, which she runs with Luka, a Mask—a Caerus employee—walks in and announces that their mother nominated Inesa for the Lamb’s Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is a livestreamed challenge in which Angels, or lab-modified humans, hunt and kill Lambs to pay off citizens’ debts. Shortly before the competition is due to begin, Inesa and Luka go on the run. Meanwhile, Melinoë, one of the Angels engineered to be killing machines (who are “just human enough to feel”), is glitching. Painful memories seep through even as she sets forth to nab her Lamb before she can escape. As Inesa and Melinoë battle, a connection sparks, blurring the lines between hunter and hunted. In this brilliantly imagined work, the impoverished are terrorized not only by the environment but by the government, and women’s bodies are morphed and mutated to men’s ideals. This masterful queer narrative encourages readers to question messages around gender and sexuality as humanity triumphs through persistence, acts of rebellion, and small victories against the backdrop of a dark and damning setting with worldbuilding that doesn’t disappoint. Most characters present white.
A thrilling, page-turning must-read: prescient and necessary, impressive and disturbing. (Post-apocalyptic. 14-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780063211551
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2025
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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