A cautionary tale of magic and the effects of limitless power that lacks cohesion.
A teen psychic sees a future that causes her to form an unlikely alliance with a rich interloper.
Winona “Winnie” Bray, a Black 17-year-old from Buffalo, New York, can “slip deep into someone’s past, present, and future” through a simple touch, but she sells fake fortunes at a local magic shop to save money for her dream of studying archaeology at the University of Cambridge. A reading for Apollo Rathburn, a nonbinary, biracial Black teen whose father is from an old money white Buffalo family, leads to her seeing a vision of a crime being committed at her old house. Winnie goes there and finds an antique box—and Cyrus, Apollo’s cousin. Following an altercation with Cyrus, she leaves with a broken arm, possession of the box, and a dangerous, life-altering vision that involves Apollo. As Winnie and Apollo try to figure out ways to circumvent the apocalyptic vision, the seemingly indestructible box starts showing up in unexpected places. Winnie and Apollo have distinct and compelling character arcs that readers will enjoy, and their romance is delightful and tender. The horror and occult aspects of the story are thrown off, however, by some confusion and pacing issues caused by an indecipherable language used in certain chapters (“Dgudw, uq heuj. Dgudw dgudw”) and shifts in the timeline that lead to readers bouncing between a series of fragmented secondary characters and Winnie and Apollo’s story.
A cautionary tale of magic and the effects of limitless power that lacks cohesion. (content warning) (Supernatural thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9781250381736
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
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