A vivid and sure-footed, if predictable, piece of social commentary.
A privileged teen loses his place in society and must live with the despised have-nots in this first installment of a YA dystopian series.
In the near future, America has been decimated by disease. Those cities that remain exhibit the stark duality of high-tech opulence and poverty-strewn abandonment. Seventeen-year-old Kade Shaw is a Golden, one of the rich elite living in mansions in the hills of what used to be San Francisco. Kade takes his privilege for granted. Yes, he sometimes hands out (currency) points to the impoverished Dregs, but he never questions their lot in life or the unbreachable divide between the classes. And yet Kade is different. Even though Goldens are highly susceptible to illnesses, he has never been sick. Supposedly Kade’s immunity stems from his father’s research. But could there be a more insidious explanation? When Kade is arrested one night, he expects his parents to sort it out. There must have been a misunderstanding. But Kade, accused of being a Dreg imposter, is sentenced to summary execution. While his parents cannot help him, he is rescued by a group of Dregs led by a young woman Kade finds impossibly alluring. How will Kade survive living without privilege? How much of the truth has been hidden from him? Dailey writes in the first-person, present tense and paints a detailed, grim picture of post-apocalyptic society. The prose is accomplished. The dialogue, though peppered with neologisms (“shucky,” “doink”), is naturalistic enough not to jar readers. The supporting characters are well rendered. The story moves along at a good pace, and while the underlying tale isn’t new—John Christopher’s Wild Jack (1974) springs particularly to mind—it is one well worth telling to a new generation of readers. Ultimately, the book’s effectiveness will rest on readers’ appreciation of Kade, a protagonist at once exasperating (his propensity for saying the wrong thing), endearing (his love for his sister, Emmaline, and compassion for others), and cringeworthy (his ingrained objectification of women). This last will be especially hard for the audience to stomach, although it is a trait that the author has Kade take pains to overcome.
A vivid and sure-footed, if predictable, piece of social commentary.Pub Date: July 2, 2020
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 297
Publisher: Tillable Ground Dreams
Review Posted Online: April 3, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer.
Even a war driven by gods can’t sever communication between journalist lovers Iris and Roman in this steampunk-adjacent romantic adventure.
A prologue sets the scene: Dacre, a god strummed to sleep by magic in Divine Rivals (2023), will not slumber forever. His willingness to wage war to acquire more powerful magic leads him to lay waste to entire towns, and Inkridden Tribune journalist Iris Winnow and war correspondent Roman Kitt can no longer be assured the other is safe—or even still alive. In Iris’ world of cigarette smoke, copper pipes, and driving goggles, colleagues affectionately call each other by their last names, watch each other’s backs, and face danger on the front lines. Though Underling Correspondent Roman is traveling with Dacre’s army, he questions why he was healed of his grievous wounds, while at the same time, he gradually recovers memories of Iris and recalls that she was special to him. Their magically connected typewriters allow for the rediscovery of their love and for communicating potentially deadly information about the invasion of Hawk Shire. The story primarily unfolds from Iris’ and Roman’s viewpoints, and while the prose occasionally uses well-worn phrases, Anglophiles will particularly enjoy the worldbuilding, and returning readers will welcome appearances from Capt. Keegan Torres; her wife, Marisol; and Dacre’s archnemesis—and wife—the goddess Enva. Main characters present white.
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250857453
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Truly fantastic.
This dark fantasy duology opener has a magic school, a death, and five students who find themselves stranded in the wilderness.
Ren Monroe is a promising student wizard at Balmerick, a private school in the city of Kathor. Along with her best friend, Timmons, Ren is one of the few welfare students attending on a scholarship, and despite being one of the most accomplished people at the school, finding a placement in one of the top houses is proving difficult and is a hurdle in the way of the secret mission Ren has set out to accomplish. When a portal spell goes awry and Ren, Timmons, and four other students from different walks of life are thrown together into the Dires, an uncharted land where the last dragons lived, one of them ends up dead and the rest need to learn to work together to make their way back home before they succumb to the harsh environment or the terrifying revenant following them. This may well be the chance Ren was looking for to prove her worth. Placing elements of a locked-room mystery and an original magic system within the familiar trappings of a school for magic, this is a no-holds-barred tale of revenge, atonement, and the pursuit of justice set in a world diverse in skin color and social classes. Ren is a protagonist for the ages: equal parts smart, calculating, and ruthless, forming a lethal package as an avenging angel.
Truly fantastic. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-868-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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