This ambitious, well-crafted epic crosses vast, treacherous territories of time, dreams, geography and legend. Twelve-year-old Josh, a contemporary Londoner, receives mysterious nighttime phone calls asking when he’s going to arrive. Arrive where? Walking through magically replicating rooms in his own house, he comes to a huge business corporation where he’s hired as a salesperson. But the sales must take place in umaya, a world made up of individual and collective dreams. As he jumps into umaya, a spirit grasps at him and refuses to let go: She’s Jericho, his twin sister who died at birth. Their relationship becomes fierce and intense, fury offset by startling tenderness and beauty. Jericho joins Baz, who will become the world’s best drummer, and Teresa, a master of words, in Josh’s small group fighting to get home from umaya after the border slams shut. A feud between two ancient ancestral brothers from the beginning of time shapes Josh’s quest as he travels backwards through centuries. Creation legend and contemporary characters merge. Profound and serious; offbeat and clever. (Fantasy. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7636-2880-8
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2005
None
It’s the countdown to graduation and immortality for Bella, since the events of New Moon (2006) have convinced boyfriend Edward to let her join him in vampirism. While Bella desires only to leave this mortal coil, Edward wants her to try college and marriage first. Bella knows that becoming a vampire will forever sever her ties to best friend Jake, who’s a werewolf and therefore an ancient racial enemy of all things vampiric. Luckily—and predictably—a gathering of bloodthirsty, vengeful vampires is headed straight for Bella. To protect her, the vegetarians of Edward’s vamp coven need to stop trading racial epithets with the werewolves and work with them, instead. Bella wants the villains to be defeated so she can return to her everyday life of high school, anticipating immortality and fighting Edward’s determination to avoid premarital sex. Unsettling racially charged characterizations are offset by messages of overcoming difference and working together. Fans of Bella’s angst-drenched love triangle will gobble this entry up, and the open-ended conclusion paves the way for Jake’s story to come. (Fantasy. YA)
None NonePub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-316-16020-9
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Megan Tingley/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
Some heavy-handedness, but the awesome ending thrills with potential.
With a beginning and ending that pack hefty punches, this introduction to a dystopic future promises an exciting series.
Tally is almost 16 and breathlessly eager: On her birthday, like everyone else, she’ll undergo extensive surgery to become a Pretty. She’s only known life as an Ugly (everyone’s considered hideous before surgery), whereas after she “turns,” she’ll have the huge eyes, perfect skin, and new bone structure that biology and evolution have determined to be objectively beautiful. New Pretties party all day long. But when friend Shay escapes to join a possibly mythical band of outsiders avoiding surgery, Tally follows—not from choice but because the secret police force her. Tally inflicts betrayal after betrayal, which dominates the theme for the midsection; by the end, the nature of this dystopia is front and center and Tally—trying to set things right—takes a stunning leap of faith.
Some heavy-handedness, but the awesome ending thrills with potential. (Science fiction. YA)Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-689-86538-4
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2005
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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