by Cara Bertrand ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2014
For genre fans only.
This debut sends a paranormally afflicted teen to a posh school with a secret in this familiar-feeling series opener.
Lainey has lived most of her life traveling with her artist aunt and learning from tutors. When she begins to experience blackouts, her guardian suddenly sends her to a posh prep school, where she’s eagerly accepted as a Legacy student. Lainey loves antiques, but sometimes when she handles them, she sees the death of a person who touched the object. The Northbrook Academy authorities are well-aware of some of their students’ paranormal abilities—all their Legacy students have some kind of talent. Lainey learns that she is one of the Sententia and can use Thought to affect the physical world. As she deals with her quickly developing powers, Lainey falls for Carter, the handsome boy who works in his family’s bookstore and is involved with the secret society of Sententia all over the world. Alas, several other female students also covet Carter’s attentions, and when he seems to fall for Lainey, jealousies arise. Bertrand focuses mostly on the romance between Carter and Lainey, though the plot broadens a bit toward the end. She takes some potshots at science, favoring the metaphysical instead. Characterizations skew toward genre norms, and the book ends with a whopper of a premonition to propel readers into the sequel.
For genre fans only. (Paranormal romance. 12-18)Pub Date: April 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-935462-93-4
Page Count: 290
Publisher: Luminis
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
More by Cara Bertrand
BOOK REVIEW
by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023
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
Share your opinion of this book
by Ransom Riggs ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2011
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end.
Riggs spins a gothic tale of strangely gifted children and the monsters that pursue them from a set of eerie, old trick photographs.
The brutal murder of his grandfather and a glimpse of a man with a mouth full of tentacles prompts months of nightmares and psychotherapy for 15-year-old Jacob, followed by a visit to a remote Welsh island where, his grandfather had always claimed, there lived children who could fly, lift boulders and display like weird abilities. The stories turn out to be true—but Jacob discovers that he has unwittingly exposed the sheltered “peculiar spirits” (of which he turns out to be one) and their werefalcon protector to a murderous hollowgast and its shape-changing servant wight. The interspersed photographs—gathered at flea markets and from collectors—nearly all seem to have been created in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and generally feature stone-faced figures, mostly children, in inscrutable costumes and situations. They are seen floating in the air, posing with a disreputable-looking Santa, covered in bees, dressed in rags and kneeling on a bomb, among other surreal images. Though Jacob’s overdeveloped back story gives the tale a slow start, the pictures add an eldritch element from the early going, and along with creepy bad guys, the author tucks in suspenseful chases and splashes of gore as he goes. He also whirls a major storm, flying bullets and a time loop into a wild climax that leaves Jacob poised for the sequel.
A trilogy opener both rich and strange, if heavy at the front end. (Horror/fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-59474-476-1
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Quirk Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More In The Series
by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Andrew Davidson
More by Ransom Riggs
BOOK REVIEW
by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Jim Tierney
BOOK REVIEW
by Ransom Riggs
BOOK REVIEW
by Ransom Riggs ; illustrated by Andrew Davidson
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.