A high concept shakily executed.
An itinerant teen faces down a megacorporation’s metaphysical machinations.
Swiller’s YA debut opens with acerbic narrator Wallace Cole en route from Kentucky to upstate New York. Since his mother died, his father’s job has taken them to 22 states, and he’s bounced through 14 high schools. Never mind that Wallace isn’t exactly sure what his father does—apparently he’s some sort of plant fixer for Jackduke, the country’s second largest energy company. Wallace arrives in the Finger Lakes town of North Homer, where high school students are succumbing to bouts of contagious hysteria. All the same, stakes escalate quickly and unevenly. Clichés abound: He meshes with misfits and beefs with a reactionary meathead. Wallace also falls for the brainy, gorgeous, high-achieving, inexplicably receptive homecoming queen, a turn of events that feels unearned. Mumbled explanations and illogical leaps hamstring the plot as Wallace suddenly discovers a grand conspiracy to destroy—well, call it what you will—the soul, spirit, human essence. The resulting text—too dense for a thriller and too anemic for science fiction—seems unsure of itself. Syntactical rollicks between utter despair and ostensible sincerity prevent tone from aligning with diction. Is this a sweeping social satire? Analogy for a generation’s righteous angst? Derivative bildungsroman? Amid a world on fire reduced to a smolder, who’s to say? All characters are assumed White.
A high concept shakily executed. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11957-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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