A war cry and a love letter all at once.
A film set in Ireland provides the backdrop for some real-life drama.
Iris Thorne only met her grandmother M.E. Thorne once, but her shadow still looms large. The elder Thorne wrote the Elementiatrilogy, a feminist take on J.R.R. Tolkien. Iris’ father despises the books, and she’s avoided them herself in part due to the fanatical superfans—dubbed “Thornians”—who have invaded the family’s life. When Hollywood mounts a big-budget adaptation of the first novel, Iris and her younger brother visit the Ireland-based production. There, Iris warms to Eamon, the unknown hottie cast as the film’s co-lead. McCarthy (You Were Here, 2016, etc.) smartly doles out the details of the plot of Elementia, but a major conflict between Iris and her father is more frustratingly teased out until things finally click into satisfying gear. As Iris navigates her feelings for her father, grandmother, and Eamon, she spars with Cate Collins, the film’s director and the novel’s highlight. Every scene with Cate crackles with intelligent feminist reasoning that could easily have slipped into sermonizing but instead stays true to character. The novel spirals outward and upward, developing tertiary characters and tying everything together via its central theme, resulting in a dense but satisfying reading experience. All major characters are assumed white, but two of the film’s stars are part Filipino.
A war cry and a love letter all at once. (song list, glossary, map) (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5238-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2018
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes
A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK TO SCREEN
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