Lots of fun, packing both wacky humor and meaningful plot movement.
In this sequel to A Problematic Paradox (2018), even superscience schools have field trips!
In between explosively rigorous pop quizzes and mad science hijinks, Nikola gets to go on not one but two of the very special school’s rare field trips. One sends the students in her electronic-combat class to the Ozarks to track down a suspected parahuman and invite them to the school. The other, for urban-camouflage class, is to practice blending in at a mall. These out-of-school adventures open up opportunities for deepening the lore of the worldbuilding and introduce the idea of a horrific new antagonist. They also allow the text to broach uncomfortable (in a good way) discussions on sources of privilege and murky loyalties, both artfully enough to avoid bogging down the action-oriented plots—which introduce new friends and foes and extensively progress storylines left over from the first book (namely, the fate of Nikola’s father and the identity of the traitor at the school). Some of the best humor comes through educational moments, and only occasionally do the wry jokes tread too deeply into far less effective, too-edgy territory. While the nonhuman characters (Old Ones and parahumans) outnumber ordinary humans, human characters tend to lack racial descriptors, seemingly defaulting to white. The well-developed denouement provides solid closure while plot tentacles set up the next story.
Lots of fun, packing both wacky humor and meaningful plot movement. (Science fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5247-3848-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
An impressive sequel.
Boy and fox follow separate paths in postwar rebuilding.
A year after Peter finds refuge with former soldier Vola, he prepares to leave to return to his childhood home. He plans to join the Junior Water Warriors, young people repurposing the machines and structures of war to reclaim reservoirs and rivers poisoned in the conflict, and then to set out on his own to live apart from others. At 13, Peter is competent and self-contained. Vola marvels at the construction of the floor of the cabin he’s built on her land, but the losses he’s sustained have left a mark. He imposes a penance on himself, reimagining the story of rescuing the orphaned kit Pax as one in which he follows his father’s counsel to kill the animal before he could form a connection. He thinks of his heart as having a stone inside it. Pax, meanwhile, has fathered three kits who claim his attention and devotion. Alternating chapters from the fox’s point of view demonstrate Pax’s care for his family—his mate, Bristle; her brother; and the three kits. Pax becomes especially attached to his daughter, who accompanies him on a journey that intersects with Peter’s and allows Peter to not only redeem his past, but imagine a future. This is a deftly nuanced look at the fragility and strength of the human heart. All the human characters read as White. Illustrations not seen.
An impressive sequel. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-293034-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2021
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