A powerful novel with a neatly wrapped-up conclusion.
A reluctant heroine returns to fight the deeply entrenched corruption and greed of a futuristic society in which proprietary rights have trumped those of its individual citizens in this sequel to All Rights Reserved (2017).
Speth Jime struggles to find her footing after toppling the Wi-Fi network in her home of Portland, Vermaine. While she’s disabled the system that charges people for each word they speak, she’s also plunged the city into chaos. Car chases and zip lining across cityscapes are interspersed with weightier passages in which Speth and her diverse group of friends travel across the country, incrementally learning more about the history of the dystopian United States in which they live. This juxtaposition, while sometimes feeling a bit obvious, propels the story forward, and Speth’s standoffs with creepily evil, archetypical villain Lucretia Rog establish her as a vulnerable but tough narrator. Careful and cautionary worldbuilding includes factory farms where indentured workers’ children are born as property of the corporation and a militarized border between the U.S. and the country Téjico (formerly Mexico), including a huge concrete wall to keep immigrants out of the U.S. Speth’s Mexican heritage, alluded to in the first novel, is more visible in this one, with social commentary including the insidious ways people of color have been marginalized and exploited.
A powerful novel with a neatly wrapped-up conclusion. (Science fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-335-01625-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harlequin Teen
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A twisty and spooky debut.
Six teens use witchery and myth to try to reverse a town’s legacy.
As Halloween approaches, six young people’s paths converge in Haelsford, Florida: Logan Wyatt, a new witch student who still struggles to do basic spells; Jailah Simmons, Thalia Blackwood, and Iris Keaton-Foster, who form a clique of powerful witches dubbed the Red Three; and Trent Hogarth and Mathew Beaumont, two mundanes—those with no magical ability—who live in the cursed town of Haelsford and attend Hammersmitt School for Exceptional Young Men. Logan is relatively new at Mesmortes Coven Academy, but even newbies know of the entrancing Red Three and lust to be a part of their circle. To Logan’s surprise, she’s the one they’ve set their sights on, inviting her into their fold just a few weeks before Haelsford’s yearly hex brings deadly Wolves to its streets. Some readers may find the six perspectives jarring, while others will revel in the quick switches among different points of view as Haelsford’s central mystery unfolds. Necromancer Iris and greenwitch Thalia steal the show with spellbinding backstories and conflicts with others characters, while the rest feel less memorable by comparison. Most main characters are Black; Mathew and Logan are White. Trent and Jailah are queer.
A twisty and spooky debut. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: July 26, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-338-75896-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Don’t look over sea or under stone, this is the fantasy novel for all once and future fans of suspense-filled storytelling.
Sixteen-year-old Black whiz kid Bree Matthews battles grief and demonic forces on her college campus.
After her mother dies in an accident, Bree begins a residential program for enterprising teens at her mother’s alma mater and, soon after her arrival, witnesses a magical attack that triggers hidden memories about the evening her mother was killed. Haunted by the fact that their final conversation was an argument, Bree begins a redemptive quest to uncover the connection between her mother’s death and the university’s secret society, the Order of the Round Table, joining their ranks as an initiate and unwittingly stumbling into a centuries-old supernatural war. While competing in the tournament that determines entry to the society, Bree discovers the truth about her heretofore unknown magical abilities, unwinding a complex history that showcases the horrors chattel slavery in the American South perpetuates on the descendants of all involved. Push through clunky expositions and choppy transitions that interrupt the cohesion of the text to discover solid character development that brings forward contemporary, thoughtful engagement with the representation, or lack thereof, of race in canonical Arthurian lore and mythologies. Representation of actualized, strong queer characters is organic, not forced, and so are textual conversations around emotional wellness and intergenerational trauma. Well-crafted allusions to established legends and other literary works are delightful easter eggs.
Don’t look over sea or under stone, this is the fantasy novel for all once and future fans of suspense-filled storytelling. (author's note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-4160-6
Page Count: 512
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: June 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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