Mystery lovers will be pleased to have this whodunit, which is neither Victoriana nor steampunk
The brilliant daughter of Detective Sgt. Moriarty meets posh Sherlock Holmes, so obviously there will be murders.
Mori's got her hands full putting up with idiots at school, grieving her six-months-dead mum, and protecting her three younger brothers from their alcoholic and abusive father. Not so long ago, her family was happy: her dad spent time being manly with the boys, while Mori learned about martial arts and sleight of hand from her mother. With all that over, Mori has no intention of becoming friends with arrogant classmate Sherlock. Despite her best efforts to stay away from him, though, Mori fails. Both his intelligence and his affection for her are deeply compelling, and that's not to mention how interesting it is to be solving a murder with one of the few clever people she knows. When the crime they're investigating starts hitting too close to home—reminding Mori of her beloved mother's many secrets—she no longer wants Sherlock to be a part of her investigation. The story is set in present-day London and narrated affectingly by Mori. The conclusion leaves space for the fated collapse of the Holmes/Moriarty relationship in later series entries, putting a nice potential twist on the good girl–bad boy trend.
Mystery lovers will be pleased to have this whodunit, which is neither Victoriana nor steampunk . (Mystery. 13-15)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2303-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In a subgenre about queer themes and musicals that’s big enough to offer choice, other options are funnier and more genuine...
Mistaken identity, misbehavior, and musical theater.
Now that she’s starting Catholic school, how will 14-year-old Marty spend time with BFF Jimmy, who’s staying in public school and has a new boyfriend distracting him? Marty likes Jimmy’s boyfriend’s friends from the Gay-Straight Alliance but misses Jimmy’s undiluted attention. At least Marty’s school is doing Into the Woods—musicals are Marty’s lifeblood. Playing Little Red Riding Hood, she falls for the wily older boy playing the Wolf; Into the Woods fans will gobble up the detailed connections between show and life. As the kids pal around and drink beer, Marty’s oblivious social assumptions exist only to set up a plot tangle of identities, jealousies, and missteps. Weak characterization strains for voice, with Marty’s campy first-person narration (“HELL no. I’m not going to be the only girl-skank in these pictures!”) sounding the same as her gay friends’ (“Sweetheart, you have no idea what a trove of secrets I keep”; “You are soooo changing out of that…arrangement of fabric”). Ongoing snark about unshaven female legs, an it’s-so-weird attitude about a Chinese name before Marty learns its pronunciation, and variations on a slur (“mah bitches,” “bee-yatch,” and the classic “bitch”) aim for humor and flavor but come off, well, bitchy.
In a subgenre about queer themes and musicals that’s big enough to offer choice, other options are funnier and more genuine than this. (Fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1496-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A world ruled by Hitler ought to evoke at least a smidgen of horror, but this overstuffed slog overwhelms the horrifyingly...
Dark secrets abound in the last human enclave two generations after the Nazis created vampirism and took over the world.
Sophie lives in Haven, the Pacific island nation where humanity retreated after the truce with the undead Third Reich (if there were prior residents, they're invisible in mostly occidental Haven). Sophie adores her secret vampire boyfriend, Val, to whom she smells "intoxicating." Val hides secrets of his own: as a human, he was engaged to Sophie's grandmother; later, he had a fling with Sophie's mother. More important than Val's incestuous affections is his knowledge of who is murdering everyone Sophie loves. He won't tell her, so Sophie's willing to investigate even into the Third Reich, if she must. Bramble’s New York—Gestapo-controlled, vampire-overrun—shows no sign of the evils to be expected of even a human Führer, aside from one appallingly unconcerned mention that nearly all Jews have been murdered. This book’s moral compass is seriously skewed. As Sophie adventures with cinematic intensity, she knows she's unlike the prejudiced Havenites, for she comprehends morality in shades of gray. Why, this sophisticated miss understands that human misdeeds in the fight for survival against total annihilation are comparable to the horrors of Auschwitz, an equation drawn with a straight narrative face.
A world ruled by Hitler ought to evoke at least a smidgen of horror, but this overstuffed slog overwhelms the horrifyingly real vileness of Nazism with vampiric banalities. (Science fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63079-017-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Switch/Capstone
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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