A well-crafted novel hampered by a reliance on troubling stereotypes.
A teenage girl does battle with a demon from the spirit realm in LeDuc’s (Cursed Presence,2015, etc.) YA adventure.
As a Caucasian foundling growing up on a Cree reservation in Florida, Pamoon has always been different from those around her. But on her 16th birthday, she learns just how different she really is. An ancient ritual gone terribly wrong has unleashed a violent demon into the world, and Pamoon is the only one who can force him back into the spirit realm from whence he came. Like any teenager would, she reacts to the news of her destiny with a mix of confusion, fear, and defiance. But as she journeys to the Spirit Cave to learn how to defeat the kanontsistonties (a winged, flying skull from Iroquois mythology) and save the souls of her kidnapped friends, she comes to accept her role. In this first entry in a planned series, LeDuc creates a strong, compelling heroine and action-packed sequences that will keep readers turning pages. The opening scene, in which a group of drunk, teenage boys inadvertently summon the demon, is the stuff of classic horror, while dramatic fight sequences raise the tension effectively. There’s even a budding romance between Pamoon and an exiled young warrior. Unfortunately, the book relies on a jumble of generic signifiers of Native American culture that seem to have been drawn more from old Hollywood movies than any single group’s unique traditions: characters dress in buckskin and wear turquoise, are referred to as a “young brave,” shoot bows and arrows, and throw tomahawks. The story is set in Florida, but confusingly, the Native American characters are described as Cree, a nation with no historic connection to the state. Pamoon herself falls squarely into white-savior territory; she’s said to be the “girl as white as the winter snow” who, according to legend, “would one day come and save us all.” Still, this is a creatively told supernatural thriller from a talented writer; the settings are vivid, especially in LeDuc’s vision of the spirit world.
A well-crafted novel hampered by a reliance on troubling stereotypes.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2017
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 351
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 6, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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