A catchy premise but an off-key performance.
Hoping to save her brother, a 17-year-old refugee enters Starmaker, a deadly idol competition that’s televised globally.
Seven years ago, when the sea swallowed Exeter, Taryn Beck resettled in the Scottish Border Camps. Illness took her mother’s life. Her family survives on rations and meager pay from Laborforce jobs, but her brother Jenson’s health depends on scarce, expensive medication or an unlikely liver transplant. With Jenson’s prescription running low, Taryn plans to drop out of school and start working—until she receives an incredible opportunity. Every year, about 250,000 people worldwide apply for Starmaker, around 1,000 get callbacks, 10 make it onto the show, and five, chosen by audience votes and a panel of judges, win a spot in the band. This time Taryn will be one of the lucky contestants living in the Dreamhouse in Media City, Michigan. Once the show begins, the stakes get even higher—each week, an eliminated contestant forfeits their life to Project Population, the show’s sponsor. Fast-paced and heart-wrenchingly suspenseful, this work combines the glitter, drama, and cutthroat competition of the pop music industry with the looming threat of death. Beneath the sparkle, the story explores the pervasive, violent impact of capitalism. Alongside Taryn, who’s white and queer, the cast includes a racially diverse international cast, as well as fat and transgender characters. Unfortunately, the shallow characterization veers into harmful tropes, diminishing the story’s appeal and impact.
A catchy premise but an off-key performance. (Dystopian. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798347110568
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2026
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters.
When star hockey player Alec Barczewski’s estranged childhood friend, Dani Collins, moves to town, they end up in a mutually beneficial fake-dating relationship that reignites old feelings.
Following her parents’ divorce, Dani and her mom move in with Dani’s hockey legend grandfather in Southview, Minnesota, where she spent a month every summer as a child and where her friendship with Alec grew. Between visits, the two were pen pals, but they eventually fell out of touch. Despite some tensions over their loss of friendship, the high school seniors reconnect. Desperate to get off Harvard’s waitlist, Dani needs another extracurricular activity, while Alec—whose reputation took a hit when a photo of him holding a bong appeared on social media—is eager to improve his tarnished image for NHL scouts. The pair strike a deal: They’ll fake date, making Alec look like a stable guy whose academically gifted girlfriend is related to hockey royalty, and in exchange, he’ll get Dani a team manager position that will catch the eye of Harvard’s admissions officers. Eventually, complicated feelings about their past, stressful family relationships, and their brewing romance boil over. Romance fans will love the deliciously tension-filled scenes between Alec and Dani, who are believable friends with heavy demands weighing on them. They feel like real teenagers, and readers will enjoy rooting for them as the well-paced story unfolds. Main characters present white.
A compelling romance inhabited by complex and appealing characters. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781665921268
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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