by Diana Renn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2015
A solid choice for readers hungry for an absorbing mystery.
A teen exiled to Turkey for the summer gets wrapped up in a deadly game of smuggle-the-priceless-artifact.
After her father, a Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, is caught having an affair, 16-year-old Zan Glazer takes to drinking and shoplifting. To escape negative press, Zan and her mother join Zan’s recently widowed aunt for a cruise on the gorgeous Turkish Riviera. Zan, the only person under 18 on a boat full of geezers, is happy to make friends with sophisticated American exchange student Sage Powell, but when Sage exits the tour without warning, Zan finds herself in possession of several valuable—and stolen—pieces of antiquity. Unfortunately, the items are part of a larger smuggling network, and the criminal element believes Zan knows Sage’s whereabouts—and the location of a priceless urn. In a world where heroes might be villains (and the latter might be the former, with satisfying twistiness), Zan can only trust herself to find the missing urn and get to the bottom of a family mystery that may be connected to the larger picture. Almost imperceptibly, Zan, who is used to disguises, both for her father’s sake and to hide the vitiligo slowing taking over her body, learns to be her authentic self in her fight to survive, a believable character arc that suits the plot nicely.
A solid choice for readers hungry for an absorbing mystery. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-670-01559-7
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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by Rebecca Ross ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 4, 2023
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy.
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New York Times Bestseller
A war between gods plays havoc with mortals and their everyday lives.
In a time of typewriters and steam engines, Iris Winnow awaits word from her older brother, who has enlisted on the side of Enva the Skyward goddess. Alcohol abuse led to her mother’s losing her job, and Iris has dropped out of school and found work utilizing her writing skills at the Oath Gazette. Hiding the stress of her home issues behind a brave face, Iris competes for valuable assignments that may one day earn her the coveted columnist position. Her rival for the job is handsome and wealthy Roman Kitt, whose prose entrances her so much she avoids reading his articles. At home, she writes cathartic letters to her brother, never posting them but instead placing them in her wardrobe, where they vanish overnight. One day Iris receives a reply, which, along with other events, pushes her to make dramatic life decisions. Magic plays a quiet role in this story, and readers may for a time forget there is anything supernatural going on. This is more of a wartime tale of broken families, inspired youths, and higher powers using people as pawns. It flirts with clichéd tropes but also takes some startling turns. Main characters are assumed White; same-sex marriages and gender equality at the warfront appear to be the norm in this world.
Ideal for readers seeking perspectives on war, with a heavy dash of romance and touch of fantasy. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-250-85743-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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by Tomi Oyemakinde ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 2023
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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