A deft balance of pathos and humor.
A troubled teenager travels back to the medieval era in Flint’s YA fantasy novel.
Seventeen-and-a-half-year-old Alex thinks she’s seen every variety of foster mom. Her latest one, Monica, seems to be the overly earnest and anxious type. Alex has always been an urbanite, residing in San Francisco and other cities, so living in rural Jefferson, California, with Monica is an adjustment. (There is dial-up internet, and many cows.) In drama class at her new high school, Alex meets Ryan when they kiss as part of a play rehearsal. After skipping school together and getting into trouble with police, Ryan proposes that they flee to Los Angeles. Torn between well-meaning Monica and persuasive Ryan, Alex is just about to call Ryan when lightning strikes, followed by darkness. Alex awakens in an alternate world resembling a Renaissance fair. She’s now in London, and worse, it’s no longer the year 2013, but 1613. Mistaken for a missing actor who’s supposed to play Juliet in a performance for the King of England, Alex is forced to conceal her gender (only men could act) while searching for the real actor and trying to somehow get back to her own time. Flint breathes new life into the tired concept of time travel. The characters are uniformly engaging, from the leads to the minor players. Damaged Alex (her biological mother overdosed) never loses her sense of humor, whether getting peed on by a “Decidedly Well-Hydrated Cow” or tipping over in bottom-heavy clothing during the medieval era. A large cast, including a lisping oarsman, a prisoner named Moll Cutpurse, and a pimply, sarcastic drama classmate, also add dashes of flavor. London in 1613 is vividly described, with “dusty children” watching a sadistic marionette show, fleas, stockades, stalls selling produce, and live chickens. The depiction of small-town life in 2013 Jefferson—a place with “fallow fields and ancient tractors,” Western wear stores, a Super Kmart, and bowling alley—also rings true. Flint keeps the story moving briskly, and it’s so much fun that the improbable aspects shrink to insignificance.
A deft balance of pathos and humor.Pub Date: May 1, 2025
ISBN: 9781947536203
Page Count: 319
Publisher: Turtle Cove Press
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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