A meandering story lacking momentum.
In 1965 San Francisco, high school senior Blake Estancia is plagued by cryptic visions.
Magic runs in Blake’s family, but it has barely manifested in her. Unlike her telekinetic maternal grandmother, Zora, introduced in Dhonielle Clayton’s Shattered Midnight (2022), or her healer abuela, the teen’s power is relatively unimpressive: She receives abstract impressions when touching an object. Resigned to this, Blake focuses on becoming a professional artist, but it’s not easy for a young woman to break into the male-dominated art world. When startling visions begin appearing—first in her dreams and then in her waking hours—Blake turns to the aunt and uncle who raised her after her parents’ deaths for answers. She learns the truth about a family curse and a lost magic heirloom: her grandfather Phillip’s mirror. Blaming the curse for the many tragedies in her family’s history, Blake decides to break it by following the clues in her visions to find the mirror. She’s accompanied by her best friend, Olivia, and a British boy named Ian whose immediate connection with Blake seems fated. The book’s inherent suspense and initial forward motion are stalled by Blake’s unfamiliarity with her family history. When she begins her investigation into the curse, she finds fragments of answers, random breadcrumbs lacking in context that lead to a sudden and not quite conclusive ending. Blake’s mother was biracial (Black and White), and her father was Mexican.
A meandering story lacking momentum. (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: July 19, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-04640-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations.
Magic, mystery, and love intertwine and invite in this newest take on the “enchanted circus” trope.
Sisters raised by their abusive father, a governor of a colonial backwater in a world vaguely reminiscent of the late 18th century, Scarlett and Donatella each long for something more. Scarlett, olive-skinned, dark of hair and attitude, longs for Caraval, the fabled, magical circus helmed by the possibly evil Master Legend Santos, while blonde, sunny Tella finds comfort in drink and the embraces of various men. A slightly awkward start, with inconsistencies of attitude and setting, rapidly smooths out when they, along with handsome “golden-brown” sailor Julian, flee to Caraval on the eve of Scarlett’s arranged marriage. Tella disappears, and Scarlett must navigate a nighttime world of magic to find her. Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. Dresses can be purchased for secrets or days of life; clocks can become doors; bridges move: this is an inventive and original circus, laced with an edge of horror. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets.
Immersive and engaging, despite some flaws, and destined to capture imaginations. (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-09525-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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