Crowded and pointillistic: still readable but best for confirmed fans.
The Flare virus continues to exact a heavy price, as multiple characters discover in this sequel to Maze Cutter (2022).
In a mosaic assemblage of short or multipart chapters that series readers will tolerate without frustration, Dashner sends groups (including no fewer than seven point-of-view characters) on various quests. As Ximena heads north from her Baja village in hopes of finding her tardy mother, escapees from the island of immunes reach the coast and split up so that Sadina can get her ominously sick mom to Villa doctors. Meanwhile, Minho and others make their way to the opener’s titular ship and then on to Alaska to kill (or maybe join) the sacerdotal trio dubbed the Godhead. Meanwhile, said Godhead—Nicholas, Alexandra, and Mikhail—is down to two, as one is left as a decapitated head in a glass box, and the survivors wrestle with different flavors of creeping madness. Presaged by encounters with corpses and the odd stabbing, a horrific medical procedure, and a climactic battle with an army of diseased, zombielike Cranks, the unwieldy company is scattered and on the run: Stay tuned for more rousingly icky developments. The main cast largely reads white, with the exceptions of Ximena, Minho, and Frypan, a long-continuing character who has aged here into Old Man Frypan and was previously described as dark-skinned.
Crowded and pointillistic: still readable but best for confirmed fans. (Dystopian. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2023
ISBN: 9798985955224
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Akashic Media Enterprises
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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