A girl gets out of rehab but can’t stop herself from hanging with her wild friend.
Casey was a star student, but her friend Shana, who likes to walk on the wild side, deliberately led her into addiction to pain medication. Just after leaving rehab she promises her parents she’ll spend the night at a slumber party with trusted friends but immediately ditches them when Shana and pals show up. Shana first plays chicken at high speed as they drive to New York City, then gets Casey into a bar where her old boyfriend Sam, who dumped Casey because of her drug use, is playing in his band. Invited to a rave, they enter an abandoned part of the subway system. Roofied by Shana, Casey thinks she might be hallucinating when she sees the brutally murdered body of a friend. Police raid the party, driving Casey, Shana, Sam, and two others ever deeper into the mazelike subway tunnels—where they eventually learn what has been killing people. Vega morphs a teen-rebellion story into horror and does a nifty job with both, as Casey realizes that Shana has surreptitiously drugged her and begins to see the girl for the possible monster that she is. Exactly what attacks and devours the teens is kept ambiguous, adding a nice level of creepiness and psychological intrigue.
Both scary and gory, tailor-made for fans of the genre. (Horror. 12-18)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59514-724-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Categories: TEEN PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL | TEEN MYSTERY & THRILLER | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
Did you like this book?
After a family tragedy, 16-year-old Ivy Mason hopes to reconnect with her aloof identical twin sister, Iris—but Iris has other plans.
When Ivy’s parents divorced 10 years ago, Ivy stayed with her father while Iris went to live with their mother. When their mother dies after falling off a bridge while jogging, Iris comes to live with Ivy and their father. Narrator Ivy is reeling (she even goes to therapy), but Iris seems strangely detached, only coming to life when Ivy introduces her to her best friends, Haley and Sophie, and her quarterback boyfriend, Ty. However, Ivy isn’t thrilled when Iris wants to change her class schedule to match hers, and it’s not long before Iris befriends Ivy’s besties and even makes plans with them that don’t include Ivy. Iris even joins the swim team where Ivy is a star swimmer. As Iris’ strange behavior escalates, Ivy starts to suspect that their mother’s death might not have been an accident. Is Iris up to no good, or is Ivy just paranoid? In the end, readers may not care. There are few surprises to be found in a narrative populated by paper-thin characters stuck fast in a derivative plot. Even a jarring final twist can’t save this one. Most characters seem to be white, but there is some diversity in secondary characters.
A lackluster take on a well-worn trope. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12496-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
Categories: TEEN FICTION | TEEN PARANORMAL & SUPERNATURAL | TEEN MYSTERY & THRILLER
Did you like this book?
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Categories: TEEN SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY | TEEN MYSTERY & THRILLER
Did you like this book?
© Copyright 2020 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
