Readers will be left begging for the final installment.
This second novel in the Loop Trilogy continues the saga of teens battling a controlling, corrupt world government in a dystopian future.
In the opening scenes of this second installment, Luka is again the first-person narrator, reminding readers of key events from the series starter. It’s not long, however, before readers are questioning reality along with him. Oliver carries on with what he did best in The Loop (2020)—writing about daring escapes, taut twists and turns, characters making tough decisions, and, of course, creepy tunnels with just as much intensity as before. First up is an escape from the Block, an energy-harvesting prison even worse than the Loop that leaves batteries like Luka in periods of paralysis. Regrouping with some of his ethnically diverse rebel friends, the brown-skinned teen continues his mission to take down Happy, the government’s operating system. Rescuing lost friends, avoiding Mosquito drones (reminiscent of the Hunger Games’ tracker jackers), and confronting the archnemesis who’s still bent on killing him, Luka’s course is, once again, nonstop adventure. This time Oliver interjects light humor with an old children’s toy–turned–scrambler drone and offers another side of AI technology. While some second novels dip or stall, this volume aptly does its job, building background knowledge for the series, creating more tension, and setting up a riveting cliffhanger for the series conclusion.
Readers will be left begging for the final installment. (Dystopian. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-58933-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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