An unflinching, riveting quest with plucky kid heroes and exhilaration at every turn.
Undaunted young friends trek perilous terrain to save their world in Early’s fantasy novel.
The land of Quaan receives a gift from the God-Snails every 100 years. The latest imminent gift will surely aid in fighting off “Gloomtide,” a “kind of despair” that’s overwhelming Quaan citizens. But signs of the God-Snails’ arrival put them just past a grove that’s besieged by toxic fumes. To retrieve the gift, the Imperator sends children of Crimmish, an outcast town disparagingly called the Stenches. It’s rife with poisonous air that townsfolk have built up a resistance to, though adults ultimately succumb to the fatal “Maddening.” The less-exposed Crimmish kids are ideal candidates for moving through toxic fumes, and the Sour Flower Gang, so named for harvesting a local, plague-curing flower, willingly heads north with the Imperator’s soldiers as guides. Tween boys Ditto and Fincher, along with Ash, her younger sister Sammi, and the group’s youngest, Hana, travel across Quaan and encounter its myriad dangers, including assorted creatures, despicable humans, and any number of other things that can kill them. Early’s often harrowing tale unfolds in a vividly detailed setting. Social class distinctions enliven the narrative, with the Imperator’s (and even the soldiers’) haughtiness noticeably contrasting with the geniality of the Crimmish locals. The bulk of the story comprises a series of thrilling misadventures that Fincher and the others fall into, such as a favor that necessitates diving into a lake infested with megamouth sharks. Despite the heroes’ young ages, this book is definitely for adults; violent imagery entails “fountain[s] of blood,” “rivers of red,” and “chunks of flesh,” and the brutal fights are all the more shocking for involving children. Still, a few unexpected allies, along with the youngsters’ unyielding tenacity, give the tale an encouraging tone.
An unflinching, riveting quest with plucky kid heroes and exhilaration at every turn.Pub Date: May 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781734231489
Page Count: 684
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.
In a distant future, after the Last War when the human population became endangered, a new society formed from the ashes, strictly to optimize procreation.
But not procreation between just anyone. This society, ruled by the Illum—a mysterious authoritarian group—assigns mates to select for the best traits and to breed out defects, to grow the Elite population living in the clouds. Protagonist Emeline is a stubborn and bored young woman, working her days away on the ground as a Minor Defect—one of the class of women waiting to be approved for mating with an Elite, and hoping to never be banished further from society. Emeline’s instincts are apparently to reject the rigid decorum of her society, but she spends years trying to follow the rules set out for her, or at least dissociates enough not to challenge her way of life, until one day an elusive and charming man, Hal, walks into her office to talk about art. The same day, she is approved for mating and matched with Collin, the youngest member of the Illum, in the sort of pairing that hasn’t happened in decades. Courtship with Collin is full of luxury—fancy dinners and balls in the clouds—but also lies and days of discovering secrets kept from her, while trying to keep the Elite’s rumors and malicious Press at bay. Caught between these two men, with their own agendas, and so many unanswered questions, Emeline must decide what she wants, if she can want anything at all. With a rebellion rising in secret and the repression of the Illum close at hand, she’ll find what she’s willing to lose for the ability to choose for herself. The dystopian worldbuilding is underdeveloped at best, so get swept up in discovering truth from lies quickly before it starts to fall apart in your hands.
For readers of the once-popular dystopian YA novels who are now all grown up.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2025
ISBN: 9798217090990
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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