A slow-burn story that could do with more sparks.
A girl struggles to uncover the identity of a kidnapper before her cousin’s time runs out.
Almost every June, three Tennessee boys disappear. They’re kept in an underground bunker for 13 months before being released; 12 have been taken so far. The mysterious kidnapper is known as the Gemini Thief: an adult of average height and weight dressed in a welding helmet and a black racing jumpsuit. Thea believes the Thief took her cousin, Aulus McClaghen, the year before and that he was not a runaway. When the body of a known Gemini Thief victim turns up with Aulus’ keychain, fear escalates—and her eccentric father immediately comes under scrutiny as the last person to see Aulus before his disappearance and the one who gave him the distinctive keychain. The two had been working on Thea’s father’s passion project, a castle he claimed God asked him to build. Despite the pain of evidence pointing toward her father’s guilt, she’ll stop at nothing to find Aulus. Two distinct narratives unfold through Thea’s first-person perspective and Aulus’ letters written within the bunker. Though the final reveal is surprising and chilling, both Thea’s and Aulus’ journeys feel meandering until they finally reach sudden crescendos. Each red herring is a bit too hammered in, and truly tense moments are few and far between. One of Thea’s friends is black while all other characters are white.
A slow-burn story that could do with more sparks. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-7852-2190-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
A winning game of feelingsball.
A former football star, who never thought she’d play again after she came out as transgender, steps back onto the field for one last season to help her team win state.
Grace Woodhouse used to know where she belonged. She had Division I schools lined up to recruit her, but that was before what happened during playoffs last year, before she came out as trans, and before she quit the team. Although her single father and new friend group support her, Grace feels lost as her senior year begins. When one of her old teammates asks her to help him with his technique, she quickly realizes that he and the other captains are hoping for more than her expertise from the sidelines—they want her to rejoin the team. Grace can’t resist the opportunity to play again, but her return draws unwanted national attention that makes her question her future and who she wants to be. Flashback chapters written in the second-person present tense bring Grace’s past to life, which helps maintain momentum and makes her emotional journey feel more immersive. A heartfelt, goofy, and diverse cast of secondary characters surround Grace, who’s white, as she navigates self-doubt, friendship, complicated feelings for her ex-girlfriend, and what she wants to do after graduation. Overall, this coming-of-age sports narrative is honest, gentle, and hopeful.
A winning game of feelingsball. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 13, 2025
ISBN: 9781646145027
Page Count: 344
Publisher: Levine Querido
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2025
PERSPECTIVES
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