Exciting, for readers who can get past the annoyingly persistent credibility issues.
A mystery involving bicycling culture set in greater Boston and Ecuador. Seventeen-year-old Tessa Taylor has been the perky host of the Boston-based cable TV show KidVision for four years. But when she gets caught “bandit riding” (riding without raising the necessary money) for a charity event, she loses her job. Worse, she thinks she’s caused the death of star EcuaBar team cyclist Juan Carlos, who went down in the crash Tessa caused when she pulled out of the charity race abruptly. Thus begins a layered plot of murder and racketeering full of twists and turns. Author Renn knows her way around competitive cycling—the nuanced descriptions of the operation of bicycle-racing teams are spot-on. Where the story lurches, however, is in the barely credible decision-making of its narrator, Tessa. Tessa’s rationale for not contacting the police when she is threatened (“[n]ot so simple”) is not convincing, and too many of Tessa’s decisions force readers to wonder whether she’s just used to having her own way and not listening to others or if she is, in fact, clueless. To be sure, Tessa’s bad decisions lead to a great deal of exciting action and tension that keep readers turning the pages, but the excitement doesn’t outweigh the overall believability problems.
Exciting, for readers who can get past the annoyingly persistent credibility issues. (Thriller. 13-17)Pub Date: July 3, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-670-01558-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
An overall entertaining read.
In this sequel to The Similars (2018), tensions rise as the villains reveal a ploy to exact revenge on the Ten and their families and ultimately take over the world.
When Emma Chance returns to her elite boarding school, Darkwood Academy, for her senior year, things are different: Her best friend, Ollie Ward, is back while Levi Gravelle, Ollie’s clone and Emma’s love interest, has been imprisoned on Castor Island. More importantly, Emma is coming to terms with the contents of a letter from Gravelle which states that she is Eden, a Similar created to replace the original Emma, who died as a child. To complicate matters further, other clones—who are not Similars—infiltrate Darkwood, and Emma and her friends uncover a plot that threatens not only the lives of everyone they care about, but also the world as they know it. Hanover wastes no time delving right into the action; readers unfamiliar with the first book may get lost. This duology closer is largely predictable and often filled with loopholes, but the fast-paced narrative and one unexpected plot twist make for an engaging ride. As before, most of the primary characters read as white, and supporting characters remain underdeveloped. Despite its flaws and often implausible turns of events, the novel calls attention to larger questions of identity, selfhood, and what it means to be human.
An overall entertaining read. (Dystopia. 13-16)Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-6513-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one.
Teens become astronauts in record time for an inaugural space mission.
After losing his family to “the greatest flood Rome has ever known,” skilled white Italian swimmer Leo Danieli would never have expected that in his darkest moment he would be drafted by the European Space Agency to attend the International Space Training Camp, where teens will train to terraform and colonize Jupiter’s moon Europa for human settlement. California native Naomi Ardalan, a second-generation Iranian-American, has also been chosen for her expertise in science and technology. During a period of violent climate change worldwide, Earth’s governments are desperate to draft teens for a space mission for which they have only a few weeks in which to prepare. Twenty-four teen finalists, many orphaned by cataclysmic natural disasters, have been chosen from all over the world to compete for this space colonization mission. Warnings come to Leo and Naomi that there is a more sinister aspect to this mission, especially after things go tragically awry with other candidates during the training. The relationship that develops between Naomi and Leo feels forced, as if their meeting necessitates speedy deployment of a romantic cliché. The use of predictable plot devices, along with the fundamentally ludicrous premise, undermines any believability that would make a reader invest in such an elaborate space journey.
The shelves are already crowded with teens-training-for-space stories; there’s no need to make room for this one. (Science fiction. 14-17)Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-265894-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2017
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