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
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
A dark and gripping feminist tale.
A young woman faces her past to discover the truth about one of her nation’s heroes.
When Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at her university in Llyr, wins the competition to design Hiraeth Manor for the estate of the late Emrys Myrddin, national literary figure and her favorite author, it is the perfect opportunity to leave behind a recent trauma. She arrives to find the cliffside estate is literally crumbling into the ocean, and she quickly realizes things may not be as they seem. Preston, an arrogant literature student, is also working at the estate, gathering materials for the university’s archives and questioning everything Effy knows about Myrddin. When Preston offers to include her name on his thesis—which may allow her to pursue the dream of studying literature that was frustrated by the university’s refusal to admit women literature students—Effy agrees to help him. He’s on a quest for answers about the source of Myrddin’s most famous work, Angharad, a romance about a cruel Fairy King who marries a mortal woman. Meanwhile, Myrddin’s son has secrets of his own. Preston and Effy start to suspect that Myrddin’s fairy tales may hold more truth than they realize. The Welsh-inspired setting is impressively atmospheric, and while some of the mythology ends up feeling extraneous, the worldbuilding is immersive and thoughtfully addresses misogyny and its effects on how history is written. Main characters are cued white.
A dark and gripping feminist tale. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780063211506
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
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