A slightly uneven but snarky, high-energy thriller with abundant wit.
Aspiring young actress Kate’s tedious filing job becomes more dramatic than she bargained for when she witnesses a double homicide.
Kate Williams, a freckled, plus-size White girl, didn’t always dream of being an actress, but after a fluke audition lands her a co-starring role on Dirty Pretty Teens, she knows it’s what she was born to do. A controversy that leads to the show’s cancelation collides with her parents’ discovery of her plans to skip college, forcing her to take a job filing papers at her best friend Rowan Chen’s dad’s law firm to prove herself. She works in the dungeon—the secure room where high-profile clients’ confidential files are stored—and tries to avoid awkward encounters with Rowan’s brother, Ty, whose heart she broke. When Kate is the only witness to an incident in a neighboring office that leaves two men dead, but no one is willing to believe her, she must convince them or watch a killer go free. This Rear Window adaptation features a fresh main character with realistic and relatable interpersonal issues that lend charisma to what is a sometimes overly detailed text and a contrived plot that takes a while to get going and ends rather abruptly. Readers will understand and appreciate Kate’s struggle to be taken seriously and how it conflicts with her need for guidance and support. Secondary characters are a mixed bag in terms of how well developed they are.
A slightly uneven but snarky, high-energy thriller with abundant wit. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-368-07215-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
A murder mystery with much to say about modern-day segregation, policing, and personal biases.
Social commentary set against the backdrop of the murder of a Mississippi town’s first Black homecoming queen.
Nova Albright is gorgeous, charitable, and a shoo-in for homecoming queen. She’s also the target of Tinsley McArthur’s vitriol, as the title of queen has been in Tinsley’s White family for generations. When Nova ultimately wins, Tinsley unleashes a drunken tirade and threatens to kill her in a rant that one of Tinsley’s best friends records on her phone. The next morning, Nova is found dead in the Sacred Hearts Slave Cemetery, a neighborhood site she spent her spare time maintaining. All signs point to Tinsley as the culprit, but the investigation isn’t progressing fast enough for Duchess Simmons, a Black girl who is Nova’s best friend and the daughter of the town’s police chief. As Duchess takes matters into her own hands in an attempt to get to the bottom of Nova’s demise, Tinsley believes that the only way she can clear her name is by finding the actual murderer. But both girls quickly realize they’re in over their heads as they unearth truths about race, family secrets, and trauma during their investigations. The twisty, tragic plot at this story’s center is shocking and effective overall but too often becomes encumbered by heavy-handed commentary and dialogue that doesn’t sound like natural teenage speech.
A murder mystery with much to say about modern-day segregation, policing, and personal biases. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-593-56854-5
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
A fitting ending to a great duology.
The girls from Grimrose Académie must break a fairy-tale curse before death comes for them in this follow-up to 2021’s The Grimrose Girls.
Ever since friends Nani, Rory, Ella, and Yuki discovered there is a curse at the heart of Grimrose that has killed many girls over the years and that may yet take their own lives, they have started their own investigation on how to break the cycle of death and destruction. As the girls recover from the recent events—brought about by their own hands—that ended with another dead body, they each must figure out how their own lives fit into a presumably prescribed narrative. But as their deadline looms ever closer, the secrets they are keeping are opened wide, and the balance between life and death hangs on one fateful choice. Pohl’s latest bursts open the doors of multiple fairy tales, here retold with a feminist, empowering focus on the friendships between the girls, how far they are willing to go for one another, and their individual journeys to determine their own destinies. While the pacing suffers from a slight slump in the middle, the novel fulfills on its own promising conceit with a cast of characters featuring diversity in ethnicity, disability, sexuality, and mental health.
A fitting ending to a great duology. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-72822-890-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
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