This story of the power of names to create a sense of identity and belonging suffers from a lack of narrative focus.
A story of good vs. evil centering on a girl who’s grieving her murdered parents and searching for her stolen name.
After a little girl and her parents move to a new location, her mother finds their beloved collection of stories in a box. At bedtime, the girl reads a scary entry from the book, and suddenly the Shenk appears—a monster made of tentacle-like arms covered in eyes. He beheads her parents and steals the girl’s name. As she sets out on a quest to reclaim it, she travels through fantastical locations, like The Glassmoor and The Fault, and even visits The Wandering Haar, a “drifting dimension.” The child attempts to find and channel The Undertow, “a river of power and knowledge and chaos.” She’s aided (and at times thwarted) by magical characters, including talking spiders, witches, a whispering hat, giants, winged librarians, and a moving map. The busy, vividly colored illustrations add to the mystical, danger-filled mood, with interspersed chapters of black-and-white flashbacks providing background to the central narrative. The transformation of this work from webcomic to serialized monthly comic book to graphic novel is bumpy; as a singular story, the work feels convoluted due to the abundance of threads and characters that impede the narrative flow and comprehension, leading to a choppy reading experience. Human characters present white.
This story of the power of names to create a sense of identity and belonging suffers from a lack of narrative focus. (Graphic fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 17, 2026
ISBN: 9798875001765
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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
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