This absorbing dystopian romance sets the stage for an even more thrilling sequel.
A bounty hunter tries to save her brother from a prison where the wealthy hunt inmates for sport in this debut novel.
Raven Thorne has earned a reputation in the city of Dividium for putting criminals behind bars—for a price. In a world where the divide between the haves and have-nots is an ever-widening gulf, people sent to the brutal prison known as Endlock are never seen again. Raven and her brother, Jed, have barely managed to scrape by ever since the deaths of their parents, but when one fateful night lands Jed in the wrong crosshairs, he’s thrown into Endlock without the privilege of a fair trial. Desperate to save him, Raven allies with a group of rebels and agrees to get herself arrested so she and Jed can break out of prison from the inside, but the rebels’ support is contingent on Raven freeing one of their own in the process. Escape is easier said than done, given that Dividium’s wealthiest pay for the privilege to hunt Endlock inmates for sport—and, of course, Raven was personally responsible for putting many of those inmates behind bars. Despite all that, Raven earns a surprising ally in one of the prison’s guards, Vale. Their forbidden romance fuels some of the book’s most gripping scenes, but despite the lust-forward beginnings, their relationship is handled with care, given the unequal power dynamic. The sequences revolving around Endlock’s hunts increasingly build in tension, especially as the found family Raven forges within the prison’s walls strengthens in trust, creating a constantly looming threat of devastating personal loss. While Fast’s dystopian romance feels specifically tailored toward readers who grew up devouring every Hunger Games book, it does plenty to set itself apart from that formative series while ramping up for an intriguing continuation.
This absorbing dystopian romance sets the stage for an even more thrilling sequel.Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780063462717
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.
As Ireland devolves into a brutal police state, one woman tries to preserve her family in this stark fable.
For Eilish Stack, a molecular biologist living with her husband and four children in Dublin, life changes all at once and then slowly worsens beyond imagining. Two men appear at her door one night, agents of the new secret police, seeking her husband, Larry, a union official. Soon he is detained under the Emergency Powers Act recently pushed through by the new ruling party, and she cannot contact him. Eilish sees things shifting at work to those backing the ruling party. The state takes control of the press, the judiciary. Her oldest son receives a summons to military duty for the regime, and she tries to send him to Northern Ireland. He elects to join the rebel forces and soon she cannot contact him, either. His name and address appear in a newspaper ad listing people dodging military service. Eilish is coping with her father’s growing dementia, her teenage daughter’s depression, the vandalizing of her car and house. Then war comes to Dublin as the rebel forces close in on the city. Offered a chance to flee the country by her sister in Canada, Eilish can’t abandon hope for her husband’s and son’s returns. Lynch makes every step of this near-future nightmare as plausible as it is horrific by tightly focusing on Eilish, a smart, concerned woman facing terrible choices and losses. An exceptionally gifted writer, Lynch brings a compelling lyricism to her fears and despair while he marshals the details marking the collapse of democracy and the norms of daily life. His tonal control, psychological acuity, empathy, and bleakness recall Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (2006). And Eilish, his strong, resourceful, complete heroine, recalls the title character of Lynch’s excellent Irish-famine novel, Grace (2017).
Captivating, frightening, and a singular achievement.Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9780802163011
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2023
Let’s hope for more from the next book set in this world.
Sasha Cadell has survived against all odds, holding onto her loved ones and strangers as they take their last breaths—and that’s why she’s known as Death’s Angel.
For six years Sasha has lived in Haven, the underground society built to withstand nuclear war. Since the war, since her family’s deaths, since discovering she doesn’t get sick like everyone else does, Sasha’s life has been full of death and overfull with grief. While working in the Ward, Haven’s limited hospital, she stays with patients as they die. When Tristian Hayes, a unit commander of the Force, ends up as her patient, hanging on for his life, she pleads for him to stay alive. He does—upending her bleak ritual as Death’s Angel. Hoping to forget everything she’s seen and to numb the pain, Sasha leaves the Ward in favor of a role with a pickax, expanding Haven’s tunnels. Tristian, fiercely determined and stunningly stubborn, recruits Sasha to the Force for a vital mission aboveground. The story picks up steam with Sasha’s intense training to become the medic for Tristian’s tightknit unit. Together, they bear the weight of their unit’s survival and all that’s left of humankind. While in training, Sasha struggles to discern friends and enemies, but nothing is as challenging as facing her own demons. In this prequel to her debut novel, Conform (2025), Sullivan tries to accomplish a lot with both the worldbuilding and plot machinations, resulting in a convoluted story and flattened characters. The plot doesn’t have a satisfying payoff, but the romantic tension between Sasha and Tristian will keep readers engaged.
Let’s hope for more from the next book set in this world.Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9798217091027
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 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.
