Part The Westing Game, part We Were Liars, completely entertaining.
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A teen must solve a multilayered puzzle to find out why she’s the recipient of a billionaire’s inheritance.
One day Avery—with her mother dead, her father missing for years, and her guardian half sister on the rebound with her abusive boyfriend—is living out of her car. The very next day she is on a plane to Hawthorne House, a mansion in Texas, where she discovers she’s the beneficiary of billionaire Tobias Hawthorne’s fortune. She must, however, abide by one condition: living for a full year with the snubbed Hawthorne family—a family that includes the billionaire’s four grandsons, young adult brothers who share a mother but have different fathers. This whirlwind story gains even more intensity when Avery learns that Hawthorne was a master of games and manipulation. To understand her role in the billionaire’s final game and why she’s the recipient of his inheritance, she must piece together clues left in his massive estate filled with hidden chambers. Short, snappy chapters supply nonstop momentum with red herrings, more family secrets, and even attempts on her life. To help her solve the riddles, Avery must turn to the Hawthorne brothers even if there’s some romantic interest at play—and even if they’re the ones who want her dead. The main characters are White; one brown-skinned Hawthorne brother describes himself as multiracial.
Part The Westing Game, part We Were Liars, completely entertaining. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-368-05240-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status.
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Testing the strength of family bonds is never easy—and lies make it even harder.
Daunis is trying to balance her two communities: The Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, teen is constantly adapting, whether she is with her Anishinaabe father’s side of the family, the Firekeepers, or the Fontaines, her White mother’s wealthy relatives. She has grand plans for her future, as she wants to become a doctor, but has decided to defer her plans to go away for college because her maternal grandmother is recovering from a stroke. Daunis spends her free time playing hockey with her Firekeeper half brother, Levi, but tragedy strikes, and she discovers someone is selling a dangerous new form of meth—and the bodies are piling up. While trying to figure out who is behind this, Daunis pulls away from her family, covering up where she has been and what she has been doing. While dealing with tough topics like rape, drugs, racism, and death, this book balances the darkness with Ojibwe cultural texture and well-crafted characters. Daunis is a three-dimensional, realistically imperfect girl trying her best to handle everything happening around her. The first-person narration reveals her internal monologue, allowing readers to learn what’s going on in her head as she encounters anti-Indian bias and deals with grief.
A suspenseful tale filled with Ojibwe knowledge, hockey, and the politics of status. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: March 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-76656-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2021
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