This sprightly SF adventure boasts an infectiously plucky hero.
In Ash’s YA debut and series opener, a 16-year-old girl takes on merciless aliens threatening the people she loves.
Abigail Ashby’s social status is at a low point in her small New Mexico town. Her star football player boyfriend, Taylor Rooksand, has been exiled to a boarding school as punishment for a prank. Abigail also openly sides with her best friend, Harris Barnett; they’re the only people who believe his father’s claims that aliens abducted him and his still-missing wife. Evidently, those aliens have unfinished business—they return to grab Harris, and, because she’s in the same room, Abigail as well. The friends wind up on a spaceship hovering over the Earth. The two are separated, but Abigail uses her training (courtesy of her sheriff father) and her wit to attempt an escape with Harris. Meanwhile, back on the ground, Taylor reluctantly forms an alliance with Sheriff Ashby, who doesn’t hide his contempt for the troublemaking teen; they grudgingly work together to save Abigail, though she certainly isn’t just waiting around for help to arrive. Ash’s impeccably paced yarn deftly establishes characters and backstories in the early scenes and continues to develop them throughout the plentiful action sequences (Abigail, for example, is at odds with her father, who practically smothers her with his overprotectiveness). The altruistic and fearless young protagonist thrillingly faces off against cruel, sometimes monstrous beings (“Its elongated maw dripped with dark, oily fluid, and its hairless, jet-black skin was stretched over bones that jutted out at sharp angles”) and braves hostile environments like an unnerving “forest” aboard the spaceship. Even the romance angle proves engaging; Harris’ affection for his childhood friend creates a love triangle and saddles Abigail with a tough choice (Taylor isn’t as bad as the sheriff believes him to be). The narrative’s suspense is blunted somewhat by the way Abigail easily uses every alien weapon or piece of tech she gets her hands on (as does Taylor, battling threats on Earth); the fight scenes end quickly and cleanly, as if the teens are merely playing a video game. But that surely won’t stop readers from anticipating sequels and more adventures with Abigail.
This sprightly SF adventure boasts an infectiously plucky hero.Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781067414009
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Obsidian Wave Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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