Exciting, heartbreaking, and far from ordinary.
Five years after a steel mill explosion in Splendor, Ohio, six teens gain unusual abilities when they get too close to a UFO crash.
The Ordinary are Franny and her brother Arthur, Sofia, Remy, Levi, and Nick, brought together after they lost loved ones in the explosion and its aftermath. Franny and Arthur’s brother, Mark, is still in a coma, and their mother has left them. While filming “Ghost Hunters,” a new episode of their mockumentary web series, a disc-shaped object crashes, engulfing them in brightness. Soon, Franny’s having a weird effect on electronics and believes she may be inhabited by an alien, but she’s not the only one experiencing unusual things: Remy is having visions of the end of the world, and Nick develops incredible musical talent. Franny’s scary next-door neighbor, who was blamed for the industrial accident, is acting even weirder than usual, and the FBI is after them. Can they save each other and the world? The alien mystery is compelling, but this story’s heart beats with Franny and her friends. Franny’s recollections of her family before the tragedy are poignant, and Henry (A Million Junes, 2017, etc.) tackles profound loss and grief with sensitivity while emphasizing the preciousness of human connection in this vast and wondrous universe. Sofia’s family is from Mexico City, Remy is implied Japanese-American, and other main characters are assumed white.
Exciting, heartbreaking, and far from ordinary. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-451-48071-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2019
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms!
Hotshot pilot Spensa Nightshade completes her apotheosis in this series closer, as human rebels and their alien allies mount a climactic assault on the galactic empire.
Having progressed from eating rats to being a cytonic superwarrior, Spensa is bonded by ties of loyalty and lust to former Skyward Flight leader, now Defiant Defense Force admiral, Jorgen—and also to a traumatized, planet-killing, interdimensional delver named Chet. Spensa would be well on her way to full-blown pacifism if the Superiority’s war of extermination against humans were not ramping up to a newly active phase. Nothing for it but a massive space battle, complete with dogfights, huge explosions, feints, betrayals, and tragic sacrifices…not to mention a swarm of ravenous, vacuum-dwelling vastworms eager to chow down on both sides. Though slowed by Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives, the plot features more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. Better yet, the deliciously expansive cast includes not only humans and AIs but a broad array of aliens and semi-aliens from blue-skinned humanoids and a furry, haiku-reciting, fox-gerbil samurai with a (wait for it) laser sword to sentient crystals and empathic slugs. “The more different types of people we got into the flight, the stronger it would be,” Spensa reflects, and indeed, it’s collective action that proves decisive in the end.
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms! (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593309711
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
SEEN & HEARD
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