A surprise twist sets up the cracker of a cliffhanger
The adventures of a modern Holmes and a girl Moriarty, begun in Lock & Mori (2015), continue.
When Jamie Moriarty—Mori—proved her abusive father was the serial killer responsible for murdering Mori's con-artist mother and best friend, it just complicated her life. Sure, as a 16-year-old she's allowed to live alone, but her beloved kid brothers are saved from the foster system only by the fortuitous appearance of their dead mother's BFF. Mori's ex-cop dad has too many allies in the police force; are they responsible for framing Mori by leaving a dismembered hand in her rubbish bin? Mori's relationship with her brilliant classmate Lock—Sherlock Holmes himself—develops romantically (was the gender-swap really necessary to add sexual tension to this century-old pairing of beloved enemies?), but Mori keeps a distance, protecting her heart. Sherlock repeatedly imposes on Mori far too often (while mouthing platitudes about respect), with unpleasant boundary pushing that leads Mori to doubt herself. Luckily, she's a splendidly resourceful heroine: despite her gaslighting father, her pushy boyfriend, and the multiple murderers who trash her house and leave a corpse in her doorway, Mori keeps her own wise counsel and solves the many puzzles around her. Copious Americanisms weaken the London setting of these white teens.
A surprise twist sets up the cracker of a cliffhanger . (Thriller. 12-15)Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2306-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Flat secondary characterizations and humdrum dialogue won’t keep teens from relishing this histrionic tale of love, death...
Wealthy high school junior Mcalister “Caggie” Caulfield seeks relief from grief over her younger sister’s death by entering into a dangerous relationship with a mysterious boy.
After her little sister drowns in the pool at her family’s beach house in the Hamptons, Caggie wants to die too, to the point that she contemplates jumping off the roof at a friend’s party in Manhattan. A schoolmate named Kristen saves her at the last minute but nearly falls herself. Caggie actually ends up pulling Kristen back and is credited as a hero, which only makes her feel worse. In her grief, Caggie spurns the attentions of her best friend and devoted boyfriend, but she finds a kindred spirit in Astor, a tall, dark and damaged new boy at school who recently lost his mother to cancer. But what Caggie comes to realize about her relationship with Astor is that “[d]arkness stacked on darkness just makes it that much harder to find the light.” After another nearly fatal disaster with Astor at the beach house, Caggie is forced to confront the falsehoods she has told her family and friends and let go of her guilt over her sister’s death. Though Caggie makes a point of telling readers that her paternal grandfather called people like her “phony,” almost nothing is made of the connection to Catcher in the Rye, and it serves merely to make Caggie’s tale suffer by comparison.
Flat secondary characterizations and humdrum dialogue won’t keep teens from relishing this histrionic tale of love, death and lies. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4424-3316-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
Quietly suspenseful, vividly character-driven, and poignant, with insights into cerebral palsy and the multiple meanings of...
A nonverbal teen becomes the “real-life password” to solving a terrible crime in this British import.
Sixteen-year-old Jemma has “no secrets of [her] own.” Quadriplegic due to cerebral palsy, she can’t move or speak and depends on her foster parents and her aide, Sarah, for everything from eating to using the bathroom. But people often share their secrets with her. After all, Jemma can never tell—even when Sarah’s sleazy boyfriend, Dan, hints at his involvement in a recent murder just before Sarah goes missing. But when innovative technology offers Jemma a chance to communicate, can she expose Dan’s secret before he silences her? Despite its suspenseful premise, the plot pales against Joelson’s (Girl in the Window, 2018) intimate, unflinching exploration of Jemma’s character; the book’s most powerful tension lies in Jemma’s simple, direct narration of her unrecognized, uncomfortably realistic frustrations and fears, such as patronizing adults who “don’t realize that [she has] a functioning brain” and her worry that her overwhelmed parents will stop fostering. Refreshingly, the author’s detailed depiction of augmentative and alternative communication explores both the joy of self-expression and the physical and mental effort it requires. Jemma’s bond with her chaotic but supportive foster family grounds the story, particularly her touching rapport with her younger foster brother, Finn, who’s autistic and also nonverbal. Most characters appear white.
Quietly suspenseful, vividly character-driven, and poignant, with insights into cerebral palsy and the multiple meanings of “family.” (Suspense. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-9336-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Aug. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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