An action blockbuster in print form: loud, fun and entirely forgettable.
The stunning assassin returns, heaping chaos on her lovably obtuse musician as he struggles to complete a European tour (Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick, 2011).
Perry Stormaire has had an amazing three months: a new girlfriend, Paula; a touring band gig in Europe; and no sign of Gobi, the Lithuanian assassin who blew up his house. While in Venice, Perry finds himself drawn to a prearranged meeting spot where both a hit squad and Gobi are waiting for him. On the run from assassins and police, Gobi and Perry trek across Italy, Switzerland, and France to clean up the killers and find Perry's missing family. Schreiber endows loyal Perry and deadly Gobi with strong characterization, but dependence on action clichés and stilted dialogue hamstring this book, as with the earlier title. Perry is more self-aware, making him less of a hapless victim and more of a reluctant sidekick, one whose strong sense of loyalty compels him to tough out dangerous and ridiculous events. Gobi's vulnerability is a welcome change from her near-robotic, practically superhuman performance. Despite the plethora of explosions, back-stabbings and secret identities, there are some touching moments between the two protagonists as bullets fly by. The narrative ends with a sense of completion, but it won’t prevent Schreiber from breaking out his espionage duo for future endeavors.
An action blockbuster in print form: loud, fun and entirely forgettable. (Thriller. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-547-60117-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Stellar and haunting.
Ignoring things won’t make them go away.
Told in nonlinear chapters, the story follows Owen, a bisexual high schooler from small-town Pennsylvania who is on the autism spectrum. Owen is raped by someone he knows intimately while on the school’s annual trip for seniors. Covering for the perpetrator causes stress across many areas of Owen’s life, from his relationship with his ex-military father—a man who is not proactively addressing his PTSD—to his friends and his girlfriend, Lily. Once the rapist’s identity is discovered, the novel follows Owen in the immediate aftermath of the assault. The story is superbly told, and readers will be simultaneously on the edges of their seats as the narrative slowly draws closer to revealing the rapist’s identity and saddened by the waves of emotional and physical abuse Owen endures as he attempts to make the sexual assault investigation disappear. Other themes, such as Owen’s slow emergence from the closet and the milestone of his driver’s license, add additional complexity and humanity in support of the main storyline. Book clubs and discussion groups will have a lot to ponder. Backmatter directing readers to sexual assault resources would have elevated the title even further. The main characters are White; there is diversity in the supporting cast.
Stellar and haunting. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64567-332-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Page Street
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
PROFILES
Intense, implausible, and impossible to put down
A teen and her best friends exact revenge on the prep school boys who raped her.
Elle, Mads, Jenny, and Summer are wealthy Los Angeles teens who crash a prep school party on Elle’s 16th birthday. After four boys spike Elle’s drink and rape her, the girls decide to kill them. Using her middle name, Jade, Elle enrolls in the boys’ private school and launches an elaborate scheme of manipulation and retaliation, choosing golden boy Mack, who is in their friend group, as her scapegoat for murder. But when Jade falls for Mack, her friends start to question her loyalties, and she must decide how far she’ll go. Rhythmic, propulsive prose drives this bloody retelling of Macbeth at a relentless pace all the way to its violent end. Readers will find little moral or emotional complexity in these pages and hardly any character development or examination of the self-destructive power of vengeance. What they will find, after they leave their disbelief at the door, is a steadfast sisterhood repaying heedless assault with red-hot rage; and perhaps, in the age of #MeToo, that is enough to begin with. Jade’s father is an Indian immigrant (her mother’s ethnicity is not mentioned), dark-skinned transgender Mads has a Latinx name, Jenny is implied Korean, and Summer is bisexual. Besides a backstory involving transphobic bullying, none of these identities go much beyond name and appearance. Other key characters are white.
Intense, implausible, and impossible to put down (. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-23954-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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