Blood Mates Natalie (all human) and Ash (half human, half vampire) continue the drive to unseat the evil dictator Purian Rose and win justice for all races in the United Sentry States.
At the end of Phoenix (2013), Natalie was plucked from danger and restored to her mother and the father she thought dead, both key members of the Sentry rebellion against Rose. Meanwhile, Ash—aka the Phoenix, symbol of the grass-roots campaign Humans for Unity—heads home to Black City to regroup. They both have their eyes on the Tenth, the concentration camps where Rose has imprisoned the vampire Darklings. Each with allies both human and in-, they reunite there. Their alternating, present-tense narrations are joined in this book by a third, that of Edmund, whose story occurs 30 years before and provides both some flimsy back story and lots more angst. What with double crosses, secret missions, unlikely victories in skirmishes, obvious revelations and the occasional death, there’s plenty of action, but the blow-by-blow narration holds it in stasis. The characters are like bad actors in a high school play, emoting on cue and then moving to the next mark. The scientific improbabilities that have plagued the series from the beginning mount here, with the (protracted) climactic moment fueled by a laughably impossible medical procedure. Only for those readers who are dying to read the end of Natalie and Ash’s story. (Paranormal romance. 14-18)
Pub Date: June 12, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-15945-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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