A fresh and exciting debut.
Deft characterization and an original protagonist elevate a fantasy set in quasi-medieval Scotland.
Fifteen-year-old Agatha, who has a Down syndrome–like disability, is proud to be a Hawk, charged with watching the seas of Skye for danger, despite some in her clan calling her “retarch,” stupid, and useless. Jaime has always been friendly toward her, even while dismissing himself as weak and worthless. When their people are enslaved by brutal raiders from Norveg, Agatha and Jaime must summon all their individual strengths. This page-turning adventure is rich in atmosphere while dripping with grisly violence; untranslated dialogue inspired by Scottish Gaelic and Old Norse adds extra flavor. Jaime and Agatha alternate narration, each distinctive voice unreliable in its own way: Jamie’s cautious, anxiety-riddled account cannot conceal his courage and compassion; Agatha’s simple words convey passion, loyalty, and cleverness. Other characters display less depth—the Viking-ish marauders especially are shallow villains. While the disability superpower trope is never overtly invoked, the only explicit magic is Agatha’s gift of communication with animals and a severely traumatized woman’s power to command spirits, which may trouble some. Nevertheless, most readers will race to the triumphant conclusion and shiver at dark hints of possible sequels. The few physical descriptions seem to point to an all-white cast; there is one same-sex relationship.
A fresh and exciting debut. (note about languages) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0718-7
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Cyber-espionage takes both front seats in this conclusion to the outstanding Genius series. Though raised to be a criminal mastermind, 15-year-old Cadel rejects the role, desiring only a normal life with his new adoptive parents. No chance: Suddenly his fugitive mentor/nemesis Prosper English is showing up on nearby security cameras, a high-tech wheelchair tries to run over him as it carries his best friend Sonja down a flight of stairs and an out-of-control bus demolishes his home, leaving his new stepfather severely injured. Not only is Jinks no stranger to gaming, hacking and cutting-edge computer systems, but she plunges her young protagonist into simultaneous character-testing conflicts as he feels forced to trick his beloved but slower and overprotective guardians, abandon ethics to hack into various private and government systems and struggle to control the wild anger that in high-pressure situations drives him to act toward others just like the despised, megalomaniac Prosper. As Cadel’s multiple adversaries don’t start showing their faces until late in the proceedings, much of the “war” seems fought in the abstract, but the climax is taut, absorbing and tantalizingly ambiguous. (Thriller. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-15-206619-2
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Insurmountably flawed.
When peer pressure draws seventh grader Manny into a gang with his Latino friends, he must make difficult decisions.
Life in elementary school was simple compared to the first weeks at Orbe Nuevo Middle School. Mexican-American Manny and his childhood friends have inexplicably formed the Conquistadors. In quick succession, his friends are shaving their heads, tagging bridges, starting fights and looking for trouble. Manny, conflicted by an inner dialogue that rarely matches his actions, shaves his head but manages to stay on the periphery of the book’s prejudice, violence and profanity. Soon, his friends have talked him into buying marijuana on credit from another student. Within months, the other boys have switched from “herb” to meth. A final fight leaves two boys hospitalized and forces Manny to decide who his friends really are. Conveniently, Castan supplies a girlfriend and a new African-American neighbor. In this heavy-handed treatise against gangs and drug use, the debut novelist perpetuates the same negative images that Latino teens face daily in the media. The text is an onslaught of Latino caricatures: gullible, unemployed women cooking in the kitchen, abusive, alcoholic men running illegal businesses and young adult males serving time in prison. For a realistic and well-written novel with similar themes, try Victor Martinez’s Parrot in the Oven (1996).
Insurmountably flawed. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 15, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-8234-2268-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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