A high-tech, futuristic Ocean’s Eleven with teens.
Do you matter? Are you a one or a zero?
In 2050 in the LA neighborhood of Mirador, 17-year-old Latina Marisa Carneseca’s family is about to lose their restaurant. In series opener Bluescreen (2016), Mari and her multiethnic VR team Cherry Dogs saved the city from the titular mind-controlling e-drug virus, but there was no money or public glory in that. Mari is hunting for the hacker Grendel, who knows something she doesn’t about her past and her family, when she happens upon a black French freedom fighter, Alain, and joins his cause: taking down the nefarious Korean mega-corporation KT Sigan, which is squeezing every last penny out of Mirador’s residents by upping the cost of internet connectivity. Anja, Mari’s rich, German-immigrant Cherry Dogs teammate, buys the team’s way into a charity Overworld tournament hosted by KT Sigan, and that may offer Mira and Alain a chance to succeed…if their tech-skills are up to the task. Wells’ continuing series of futuristic thrillers ramps up the cinematic action and humor in his multicultural, multiethnic, dystopian near future. Realistic characters, whip-smart dialogue, and carefully controlled and believable technobabble (with sprinklings of Spanish, Chinese, and more) will have thriller, SF, and video-game fans rooting for the Cherry Dogs.
A high-tech, futuristic Ocean’s Eleven with teens. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-06-234790-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 1, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
A worthy second-chance romance.
In this follow-up to 2021’s Better Than the Movies, a 20-year-old college freshman gets a second chance at his dreams.
After the death of his father and his mother’s subsequent physical and emotional disappearance, Wes Bennett left behind all of his plans and the girl he made them with to go home and take care of Sarah, his younger sister. But now, Sarah has graduated, his mom is back on her feet, and by some miracle, Wes has an offer to pitch for UCLA’s baseball team. Liz Buxbaum, the girl he’s always loved, works for the university’s athletic department, taking photos and video of the team for social media, which means that maybe he can have a second chance at love, too. But since Wes left, Liz has made every effort to protect herself from ever feeling that broken again; there’s no room for love, because she doesn’t believe in it anymore. Or she doesn’t want to. This second-chance sports romance includes fake dates, quippy and quirky best friends, real heartache, and the sweet ache of first love. The clever dialogue keeps readers from drowning in the main characters’ emotional push-and-pull. Reading the first novel isn’t necessary for appreciating this one, although knowing the full history between Wes and Liz will only add to the ache and longing readers feel from and for them. Main characters are cued white.
A worthy second-chance romance. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781665947138
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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