This uncomplicated, romantic story will charm reluctant readers who want a little magic but not all the tedious rituals.
Modern witches have relationship problems, too.
After the Second Inquisition, the U.S. government instituted a National Witch Registry and established witch-only communities known as Havens. The most prominent one, established by a powerful billionaire witch, was Witchtown. When Macie O’Sullivan and her manipulative mother, Aubra, arrive there after a string of robberies in other Havens, the white 16-year-old herbalist hopes that this will be their last con job and that they will finally settle down. In her breezy yet solid first-person narration, Macie knows she should case the town for targets and keep her head low so no one discovers that she’s a magicless Void and takes a branding iron to her. Yet she can’t help befriending Talya, a fellow misfit and a psychic who sees people’s secrets, and crushing on Kellen, who has secrets of his own. (Both are white.) Light tension and mystery ensue (with a few clever red herrings) when religious zealots threaten the Haven and Macie, Talya, and Kellen plot to end Aubra’s cons once and for all. But could their plan reveal the truth about Macie in the process? Maybe the truth is not what it’s always seemed.
This uncomplicated, romantic story will charm reluctant readers who want a little magic but not all the tedious rituals. (map) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: July 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-544-76557-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A charming adaptation.
A miscommunication leaves Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert responsible for a plucky, effusive orphan girl instead of the boy they’d expected to help maintain their farm.
Retold in traditional manga format, with right-to-left panel orientation and detailed black-and-white linework, this adaptation is delightfully faithful to the source text. Larger panels establish the idyllic country landscape while subtle text boxes identify the setting—Prince Edward Island, Canada, in the 1870s. The book follows redheaded Anne Shirley from her arrival at Green Gables at 11 to her achievement of a college scholarship. In the intervening years, Anne finds stability, friendship, personal growth, and ambition in Avonlea and in the strict but well-intentioned Cuthbert siblings’ household. The familiar story is enhanced by the exciting new format and lush illustrations. A variety of panel layouts provides visual freshness, maintaining reader interest. Backmatter includes the floor plan of the Green Gables house, as well as interior and exterior views, and notes about research on the actual location. A description of the process of adapting the novel to this visual format indicates the care that was taken to highlight particular elements of the story as well as to remain faithful to the smallest details. Readers who find the original text challenging will welcome this as an aid to comprehension and Anne’s existing fans will savor a fresh perspective on their beloved story. All characters appear to be White.
A charming adaptation. (Graphic fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-947808-18-8
Page Count: 308
Publisher: Manga Classics
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
Hooked readers will be tapping their fingers waiting for the sequel.
Reichs follows up his Virals series (co-written with his mother, Kathy Reichs) with a new series about imminent human extinction.
Min is not your average 16-year-old. Living in a trailer park in an isolated town high in the mountains of Idaho, she’s learned to keep pretty much to herself. She has a mother who loves her and a best friend, Tack, who’d like to be more, but she knows they can’t understand what she’s going through. Every two years on her birthday, she’s murdered. And every two years she comes back, completely unharmed. She’s tried to escape the inevitable but knows it’s only a matter of time before the man in black returns for her. Now things are getting worse, with an asteroid headed toward Earth. Will this be it, the real end of her life? Just when she’s found that classmate Noah is having the same strange experiences she’s tried to keep hidden? Reichs varies his narrative structure, opening with Min’s present-day account, interspersed with italicized flashbacks, and then switching to Noah, whose account is punctuated by transcripts with the doctor he shares with Min, before their stories converge in alternating chapters. It’s a pacing strategy that keeps the pages flipping madly. Min, Tack, and Noah are all evidently white.
Hooked readers will be tapping their fingers waiting for the sequel. (Thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: March 21, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-54493-4
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Nov. 15, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
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