A well-paced page-turner about uncovering the truth at any cost.
Savannah’s sister, Piper, is comatose after falling off a cliff, but was it really an accident?
Piper seems perfect: smart, popular, and successful at everything she tries. Savannah is the soccer star of Grayling High, but she feels invisible, stuck in her younger sister’s shadow at home as well as at school. When Piper is found unconscious beneath a scenic lookout called Vanderwild Point, some of her classmates suspect she attempted suicide—but Savannah wants to figure out what really happened and whether it was her fault. She discovers a note in Piper’s locker asking her to come to a Survival Club meeting at the Point on the day she fell, but why was the club holding a session on a Wednesday when they only meet on Mondays? For that matter, why did Piper even join the Survival Club when she hates the outdoors? Savannah uncovers more strange clues. Who is the mysterious Alex who called Piper’s cell three times the day of the incident? Savannah is determined to uncover evidence of wrongdoing before going to the police. This fast-moving mystery focuses on Savannah and her feelings in the aftermath of her sister’s accident. The realistically imperfect characters make mistakes and have human flaws. Readers will enjoy the twists and turns as facts that exonerate one person throw suspicion onto others. Main characters read as White.
A well-paced page-turner about uncovering the truth at any cost. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: April 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72825-597-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2022
Enticing and original.
Abandoned by her sisters, Io Ora must trust Bianca—former mob queen, now dying wraith—to help her find the hidden gods and end them forever in this duology closer that follows Threads That Bind (2023).
Io and Bianca cross mudflats that harbor deadly chimerini and dodge the violent, unpredictable tides that flood the Wastelands, where humans have struggled to survive ever since the Collapse shattered the moon into three pieces. The youngest of the Moirae-born (sisters with Fates-like powers), Io is able to see the threads governing every human fate in the Quilt. She can end a life simply by cutting another’s life-thread, but the cost is high: Each time, she must sever one of her own 35 threads. As Bianca traverses anarchic wastes and dangerous urban slums ruled by powerful gangs on the way to their destination, the teeming city-nation of Nanzy, she weakens but pushes on. Despite setbacks and betrayals, the two discover unexpected allies willing to risk their lives to confront the gods. Io’s personal evolution, like the Moirae’s silver threads, is woven seamlessly into the complicated plot. While her romance with Edei is satisfying, the story’s emotional driver is the sisters’ difficult history of loss, longing, pain, and betrayal; each bears scars from their old, set-in-stone rivalries. Io’s world has an epic thematic scope and an intricately imagined setting. The characters are diverse in appearance, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
Enticing and original. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9780593528747
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
An ornate and thrilling tale of loyalty and betrayal.
In this work that’s loosely based on Hamlet and the saga of the Boleyn family, a princess becomes entangled in power struggles and travels to a foreign kingdom on a deadly mission.
Princess Madalina Sinet prefers tending to her grave flowers—the magical (and occasionally carnivorous) blossoms that are unique to her kingdom of Radix—over getting drawn into her politically ambitious twin sister Inessa’s plotting and scheming. But after Inessa is sent to Acus, a more powerful neighboring kingdom, as the intended wife of Prince Aeric Capelian, Madalina’s life gets complicated. Inessa’s ghost appears to her, revealing that she’s been poisoned in Acus and asking Madalina to avenge her. Their father, who’s involved in machinations of his own, also has plans for Madalina: He wants her to become Prince Aeric’s replacement bride and then poison him on their wedding night. Madalina has always shied away from the Sinets’ violence and brutality, but she knows she must act in order to save her family and her kingdom—as long as she can avoid falling in love with Aeric. As elaborate and ambitious as the Boleyn family’s own intrigues, this gothic fantasy’s many twists and turns may occasionally leave readers feeling overwhelmed, but the roughly familiar storyline coupled with the fascinating worldbuilding makes this an engrossing read. Madalina and Inessa are cued as being fantasy-world biracial, and the Acusan people have light, sun-bleached hair.
An ornate and thrilling tale of loyalty and betrayal. (author’s note, glossary) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781682636497
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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