Predictable execution hampers what could have been an intriguing exploration of the mechanics of corruption
A baffling illness threatens a fantasy land.
Ani’s up in a tree picking a vinefruit when wardens capture her. She’s done nothing wrong, but the wardens say that the red stain on her arm from the vinefruit juice is a symptom of the Scourge, a deadly, contagious, always-fatal disease. It’s clearly a pretext: before they found her, Ani heard them mention their assignment to “come get” several people of Ani’s ethnic group. The River People—forbidden from voting or owning property, not bathing “often enough”—are a stereotypical blend of Romany and indigenous peoples. The ruling townsfolk, on the other hand, have no specified ethnicity and seem white. The governor diagnoses Ani and her best friend, Weevil, with the Scourge and sends them to the Colony, a quarantined island from which nobody returns. (Colony wardens, oddly, seem immune to the Scourge.) Ani and Weevil play Colony rabble-rousers, resisting unfair treatment and working to untangle the governor’s statement that “River People are the Scourge.” Nielsen provides two major plot twists, and both are robust and horrifying in content; however, the method and pace of divulging them are meandering and vague, lacking punch. Characters are stock, and the prose sometimes overexplains, even stretching beyond Ani’s first-person voice to reveal other characters’ emotions.
Predictable execution hampers what could have been an intriguing exploration of the mechanics of corruption . (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-68245-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
Awful on a number of levels—but tidily over at last.
The rebellion against an evil archmage and his bowler-topped minions wends its way to a climax.
Dispatching five baddies on the first two pages alone, wand-waving villain-exterminator Vega Jane gathers a motley army of fellow magicals, ghosts, and muggles—sorry, “Wugmorts”—for a final assault on Necro and his natty Maladons. As Necro repeatedly proves to be both smarter and more powerful than Vega Jane, things generally go badly for the rebels, who end up losing their hidden refuge, many of their best fighters, and even the final battle. Baldacci is plainly up on his ancient Greek theatrical conventions, however; just as all hope is lost, a divinity literally descends from the ceiling to referee a winner-take-all duel, and thanks to an earlier ritual that (she and readers learn) gives her a do-over if she’s killed (a second deus ex machina!), Vega Jane comes away with a win…not to mention an engagement ring to go with the magic one that makes her invisible and a new dog, just like the one that died heroically. Measuring up to the plot’s low bar, the narrative too reads like low-grade fanfic, being laden with references to past events, characters who only supposedly died, and such lines as “a spurt of blood shot out from my forehead,” “they started falling at a rapid number,” and “[h]is statement struck me on a number of levels.”
Awful on a number of levels—but tidily over at last. (glossary) (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-26393-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Who can't love a story about a Nigerian-American 12-year-old with albinism who discovers latent magical abilities and saves the world? Sunny lives in Nigeria after spending the first nine years of her life in New York. She can't play soccer with the boys because, as she says, "being albino made the sun my enemy," and she has only enemies at school. When a boy in her class, Orlu, rescues her from a beating, Sunny is drawn in to a magical world she's never known existed. Sunny, it seems, is a Leopard person, one of the magical folk who live in a world mostly populated by ignorant Lambs. Now she spends the day in mundane Lamb school and sneaks out at night to learn magic with her cadre of Leopard friends: a handsome American bad boy, an arrogant girl who is Orlu’s childhood friend and Orlu himself. Though Sunny's initiative is thin—she is pushed into most of her choices by her friends and by Leopard adults—the worldbuilding for Leopard society is stellar, packed with details that will enthrall readers bored with the same old magical worlds. Meanwhile, those looking for a touch of the familiar will find it in Sunny's biggest victories, which are entirely non-magical (the detailed dynamism of Sunny's soccer match is more thrilling than her magical world saving). Ebulliently original. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01196-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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