Fifteen-year-old K discovers deception on all sides when she infiltrates a terrorist group
After narrowly escaping a bomb attack on New City’s subway system, K is asked to go undercover at a school run by the group responsible for the attack, the Brotherhood. New City’s citizenry sees the Brotherhood as the enemy; they are a large minority group that has existed outside the mainstream for many years. Orphaned at 2 when her parents were killed in a Brotherhood attack, K agrees to spy on the group, hoping to put a stop to their reign of terror. With a new identity, K moves into the Institute in order to identify students being lured into the Brotherhood’s extremist factions. But as K is assimilated into the Brotherhood, she begins to question everything she’s been taught about them. She wonders whom to trust, who the bad guys really are—and who she really is. In her debut, Waudby both draws parallels to real-world issues of religion and violence and makes them personal: K wants not only justice, but love, home, and a family. It’s an irresistible page-turner that’s full of complex characters rather than stereotypes, tackling a sensitive subject with storytelling that is as engrossing as it instructional about prejudice and the gray areas between right and wrong.
A timely and riveting debut thriller about tolerance and the complexities of truth. (Thriller. 13 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-7624-5799-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Running Press Teens
Review Posted Online: Aug. 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2015
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This hefty sequel to Six of Crows (2015) brings high-tension conclusions to the many intertwined intrigues of Ketterdam.
It's time for revenge—has been ever since old-before-his-time crook Kaz and his friends were double-crossed by the merchant princes of Ketterdam, an early-industrial Amsterdam-like fantasy city filled to the brim with crime and corruption. Disabled, infuriated, and perpetually scheming Kaz, the light-skinned teen mastermind, coordinates the efforts to rescue Inej. Though Kaz is loath to admit weakness, Inej is his, for he can't bear any harm come to the knife-wielding, brown-skinned Suli acrobat. Their team is rounded out by Wylan, a light-skinned chemist and musician whose merchant father tried to have him murdered and who can't read due to a print disability; Wylan's brown-skinned biracial boyfriend, Jesper, a flirtatious gambler with ADHD; Nina, the pale brunette Grisha witch and recovering addict from Russia-like Ravka; Matthias, Nina's national enemy and great love, a big, white, blond drüskelle warrior from the cold northern lands; and Kuwei, the rescued Shu boy everyone wants to kidnap. Can these kids rescue everyone who needs rescuing in Ketterdam's vile political swamp? This is dark and violent—one notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombs—but gut-wrenchingly genuine. Astonishingly, Bardugo keeps all these balls in the air over the 500-plus pages of narrative.
How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-213-4
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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With appeal to cynics and romantics alike, this profound exploration of life and love tempers harsh realities with the...
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Natasha and Daniel meet, get existential, and fall in love during 12 intense hours in New York City.
Natasha believes in science and facts, things she can quantify. Fact: undocumented immigrants in the U.S., her family is being deported to Jamaica in a matter of hours. Daniel’s a poet who believes in love, something that can’t be explained. Fact: his parents, Korean immigrants, expect him to attend an Ivy League school and become an M.D. When Natasha and Daniel meet, Natasha’s understandably distracted—and doesn’t want to be distracted by Daniel. Daniel feels what in Japanese is called koi no yokan, “the feeling when you meet someone that you’re going to fall in love with them.” The narrative alternates between the pair, their first-person accounts punctuated by musings that include compelling character histories. Daniel—sure they’re meant to be—is determined to get Natasha to fall in love with him (using a scientific list). Meanwhile, Natasha desperately attempts to forestall her family’s deportation and, despite herself, begins to fall for sweet, disarmingly earnest Daniel. This could be a sappy, saccharine story of love conquering all, but Yoon’s lush prose chronicles an authentic romance that’s also a meditation on family, immigration, and fate.
With appeal to cynics and romantics alike, this profound exploration of life and love tempers harsh realities with the beauty of hope in a way that is both deeply moving and satisfying. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-553-49668-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT ROMANCE | TEENS & YOUNG ADULT SOCIAL THEMES
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