An often appealing series continuation with a well-thought-out world and strong characters.
A teenage heiress with superpowers learns to handle her temper in this YA dystopian sequel.
In the year 2160, “prodigies”—people born with very special talents—live in wealthy city centers called Cores, and rule over “normals,” who live in poor villages of the Outlying Lands. Sixteen-year-old Willow Kent grew up in one such village, thinking herself a normal. But her life was upended when she discovered that she’s actually the daughter of a powerful Core family, the Roanokes, and betrothed to Thess Tiernam, the scion of a rival house. Willow also learned that she has powerful skills—specifically, an often angry presence that she feels in her stomach, which she calls her “tiger,” that gives her intuition, physical strength, and a heightened sense of smell, among other abilities. Willow doesn’t know the cultural rules in her new world, and although she vows to learn “to play the Core’s game,” her stubbornness and temper could cause her problems. She has some allies, such as Cmdr. Reece,with whom she shares a strong if volatile attraction, but also enemies, such as the cold, harsh Cmdr. Kristoffe. The wild card is Tobias “Toby” Cartier, a mesmerizing shape-shifter whom everyone but Willow’s tiger tells her not to trust. As Willow hones her skills and acclimates to the Core, she comes to realize that she, too, can adapt in unexpected ways. Denault (Gambit, 2015) continues to offer three-dimensional worldbuilding in this series installment, including richly detailed clothing and combat and plenty of asides that conjure up the future culture. Willow never learned to write, for example, because in villages, most paper goes to the bank, “where recordkeeping was required for taxing villagers. If supplies were low…they bleached old records to make blanks.” This lengthy sequel is entertaining and full of dramatic episodes, but it doesn’t significantly advance the plot; instead, it focuses on the tug of war between Willow and her opponents. The ending doesn’t offer a clear-cut resolution, but it will presumably arrive in a future installment.
An often appealing series continuation with a well-thought-out world and strong characters.Pub Date: March 22, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7344441-5-5
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Nevertheless, it's an absorbing read populated by characters hardly ever found in teen novels.
A post-apocalyptic debut breathes new life into a quickly flagging genre with its setting among the First Nations peoples of the Pacific Northwest.
Even though they live in the Corridor, Cassandra Mercredi and her family have kept to the Old Way. When a new strain of the Plague that killed their mother emerges, she, her twin brother, Paul, and her father flee to the Island, where the Band clings to treaty lands. Métis, they are apart from the specific culture of the Island, but they are nevertheless Other, and their blood contains the only known cure for the Plague. Cass finds herself apprenticed to healer Madda and increasingly drawn to Bran, the son of the Island's vanished leader. She also experiences a terrifying connection to the Sisiutl, the serpent-spirit that dwells in the lake by her house. Knutsson's narrative is ambitious, twining together Pacific Northwest mythology, standard post-apocalyptic tropes and a coming-of-age story inflected with romance. Readers of Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian will recognize the harsh realities portrayed, albeit within the science-fictional framework. Knutsson’s language is often atmospherically beautiful, but the story flounders at times, introducing unfulfilled subplots that may be foreshadowing for events in future volumes or simply red herrings.
Nevertheless, it's an absorbing read populated by characters hardly ever found in teen novels. (Science fiction. 12 & up)Pub Date: June 5, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-0191-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2012
Readers who think colloquium interruptum is an exceptionally slender premise for a 300-plus–page trilogy conclusion are...
The 35 Selection candidates have been whittled down to four; whom will Prince Maxon choose?
There’s contained, competent Elise, sweet, kind Kriss, gorgeous, bitchy Celeste and narrator America, who just can’t seem to keep herself from upsetting the apple cart of the Illéan monarchy. Her impulsive thoughts and actions—when the bad Southern rebels start picking off victims caste by caste, she advises the populace to fight back—have King Clarkson fuming. He wants America gone, but America and Maxon want each other—maybe. Amid sorties to meet with the nice Northern rebels and the pageantry of the Selection, the tiresome push-pull of Cass’ love triangle continues. America and Maxon, and America and hometown sweetheart–turned–palace guard Aspen, keep coming this close to having the critical conversations that will settle matters; it is this tension, not the pretense of political drama, that maintains the plot. Though there’s some attempt made to fill out some of the secondary characterizations, by and large it falls flat. King Clarkson in particular is a cartoon of a blustering strongman; it’s impossible to take him at all seriously as a ruling head of state. And for all America’s protestations of spunky egalitarianism, there’s absolutely nothing in her character or the story structure that does anything but support the corrupt system she supposedly rejects.
Readers who think colloquium interruptum is an exceptionally slender premise for a 300-plus–page trilogy conclusion are right. (Dystopian romance. 14-18)Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-06-205999-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
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