A gritty thriller that puts the downside of superpowers into bracingly relatable terms.
In Johns’ YA SF novel, a genetically modified youth vies with others to retain possession of a mystery package.
The author envisions a near-future Chicago in which ambitious parents employed new drugs and DNA manipulations to produce fast-thinking, high-achieving progeny but instead birthed a misfit generation of “Energy” kids, also known as “E’s” or “Fleas.” These young adults indeed have above-average reaction times, muscular coordination, and agility but also suffer from attention deficits, mood disorders, sleep deprivation, sterility, and sociopathic tendencies, and they take special nutritional supplements and medication. The loose community of E youth are outcasts, shunned by the rest of society, whom they refer to as “Slugs”; however, some manage to eke out livings as couriers for criminal types. In Chicago, Zane,who goes by the nickname “Zip,” is tasked by gangsters to deliver a seemingly ordinary package, but some hostile force reaches Bolt, the intended recipient, first and threatens Zip, who flees. Zip is left with a very hot item and endless questions about whom to trust as well as intrusive thoughts about math problems, names for cats, the economics of the lumber industry, and whatever else intrudes on his mind. Such excessive rumination could have made the material a chore to read, but Johns keeps things under firm control with a largely chase-based plotline that stays fairly straightforward until the introduction of an array of last-act betrayals and twists. The story also features a love interest who seems hopelessly treacherous; this suits the prose, which also feels like something out of a hard-boiled detective story: “Ratchet winced when I mentioned Jbird. The sound of her neck breaking would be with us for a while.” The notion that heartless helicopter parenting brought on these superkids is a potent one, and it will give the material some cred with YA readers. Meanwhile, the swearing and sexuality stay in the PG-13 range.
A gritty thriller that puts the downside of superpowers into bracingly relatable terms.Pub Date: June 15, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-952283-12-3
Page Count: 274
Publisher: Vernacular Books
Review Posted Online: April 22, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection.
Broken people, complicated families, magic, and Faerie politics: Black’s back.
After the tumultuous ending to the last volume (marriage, exile, and the seeming collapse of all her plots), Jude finds herself in the human world, which lacks appeal despite a childhood spent longing to go back. The price of her upbringing becomes clear: A human raised in the multihued, multiformed, always capricious Faerie High Court by the man who killed her parents, trained for intrigue and combat, recruited to a spy organization, and ultimately the power behind the coup and the latest High King, Jude no longer understands how to exist happily in a world that isn’t full of magic and danger. A plea from her estranged twin sends her secretly back to Faerie, where things immediately come to a boil with Cardan (king, nemesis, love interest) and all the many political strands Jude has tugged on for the past two volumes. New readers will need to go back to The Cruel Prince (2018) to follow the complexities—political and personal side plots abound—but the legions of established fans will love every minute of this lushly described, tightly plotted trilogy closer. Jude might be traumatized and emotionally unhealthy, but she’s an antihero worth cheering on. There are few physical descriptions of humans and some queer representation.
Whether you came for the lore or the love, perfection. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 19, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31042-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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