The Devil’s Intern series continues, narrated this time by Alfarin the Viking prince.
This hugely imaginative and entertaining series follows the adventures of four young devils trapped in Hell despite the fact that they are really very decent people. Team DEVIL consists of Mitchell and Medusa, both recently deceased teenagers, plus Elinor, who died in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and Alfarin, dead for 1,000 years and the leader of this book’s adventures. The Devil’s wife (and the titular Banshee), Beatrice Morrigan, has escaped into one of the Nine Circles of Hell, leaving Elinor, and perhaps Mitchell’s little brother, to become his Dreamcatcher, the soul required to filter the Devil’s awful dreams while he sleeps. Alfarin, who loves Elinor with all of his dead heart, knows he must save her by finding Beatrice, so he leads the team into the Nine Circles. Guided by Virgil himself, the team retraces the Divine Comedy by going through the circles in reverse order. Plenty of action and suspense ensue, but Hosie keeps the focus on the wry comedy generated by Alfarin’s unique outlook on life and on his own magnificent manliness. Alfarin has no doubt about his superior masculinity and constantly remarks on the Viking way of doing things in a consistently and amusingly formal voice, and all of this will keep readers chuckling.
Series fans will be thrilled by this screamingly funny return to Hell. (Paranormal suspense. 15 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3650-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2016
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He’s in remission from the osteosarcoma that took one of his legs. She’s fighting the brown fluid in her lungs caused by tumors. Both know that their time is limited.
Sparks fly when Hazel Grace Lancaster spies Augustus “Gus” Waters checking her out across the room in a group-therapy session for teens living with cancer. He’s a gorgeous, confident, intelligent amputee who always loses video games because he tries to save everyone. She’s smart, snarky and 16; she goes to community college and jokingly calls Peter Van Houten, the author of her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction, her only friend besides her parents. He asks her over, and they swap novels. He agrees to read the Van Houten and she agrees to read his—based on his favorite bloodbath-filled video game. The two become connected at the hip, and what follows is a smartly crafted intellectual explosion of a romance. From their trip to Amsterdam to meet the reclusive Van Houten to their hilariously flirty repartee, readers will swoon on nearly every page. Green’s signature style shines: His carefully structured dialogue and razor-sharp characters brim with genuine intellect, humor and desire. He takes on Big Questions that might feel heavy-handed in the words of any other author: What do oblivion and living mean? Then he deftly parries them with humor: “My nostalgia is so extreme that I am capable of missing a swing my butt never actually touched.” Dog-earing of pages will no doubt ensue.
Green seamlessly bridges the gap between the present and the existential, and readers will need more than one box of tissues to make it through Hazel and Gus’ poignant journey. (Fiction. 15 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-525-47881-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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In a remote part of Utah, in a “temple of excellence,” the best of the best are recruited to nurture their talents.
Redemption Preparatory is a cross between the Vatican and a top-secret research facility: The school is rooted in Christian ideology (but very few students are Christian), Mass is compulsory, cameras capture everything, and “maintenance” workers carry Tasers. When talented poet Emma disappears, three students, distrusting of the school administration, launch their own investigation. Brilliant chemist Neesha believes Emma has run away to avoid taking the heat for the duo’s illegal drug enterprise. Her boyfriend, an athlete called Aiden, naturally wants to find her. Evan, a chess prodigy who relies on patterns and has difficulty processing social signals, believes he knows Emma better than anyone. While the school is an insidious character on its own and the big reveal is slightly psychologically disturbing, Evan’s positioning as a tragic hero with an uncertain fate—which is connected to his stalking of Emma (even before her disappearance)—is far more unsettling. The ’90s setting provides the backdrop for tongue-in-cheek technological references but doesn’t do anything for the plot. Student testimonials and voice-to-text transcripts punctuate the three-way third-person narration that alternates among Neesha, Evan, and Aiden. Emma, Aiden, and Evan are assumed to be white; Neesha is Indian. Students are from all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East.
Only marginally intriguing. (Mystery. 15-18)Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-266203-3
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
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