Largely spellbinding.
Two lonely young people team up to fight an ancient evil.
Anna, 13 and the youngest child in a Jewish and Irish family that is psychically endowed, is dismayed about her own gift of psychometry. For Anna, touching someone who has experienced another’s death gives her a vision of that death; it’s hard for her to understand how that could be useful. Her family runs Ravenfall, an inn in the magical town of Wick, Oregon, “where magic is never far from your fingertips” and the veil between the Otherworld and our own is somewhat permeable. As the family anticipates their annual celebration of Samhain, 14-year-old Colin arrives, seeking refuge after his parents’ murders. Colin has known little about his own magical powers but discovers that his Irish ancestor Fin Varra, one of the faerie folk also known as the King of the Dead, plans to use him to reclaim a place among the living. The first-person narrative switches between Anna’s and Colin’s perspectives. Both kids are home-schooled and isolated, Colin as his family fled mysterious pursuers and Anna as she struggles with being quirky and different. The house Ravenfall is enchanted, taking care of itself and its occupants and sparring with Max, the resident Jabberwocky, a shape-changing guardian posing as a cat. Magical traditions, creatures, and objects abound in this intriguing setting, offering possibilities for sequels. A pitched climactic battle provides the young heroes with a swift if somewhat predictable victory over the dark forces.
Largely spellbinding. (Fantasy. 9-14)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-48358-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
BOOK TO SCREEN
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short.
In the dystopian, totalitarian world of 2099, 14-year-old Tessa and her family are desperate to solve the mystery of her twin brother Theo’s disappearance.
Tessa is growing up in a time when playgrounds are historical relics, surveillance cameras are everywhere, music is outlawed, and owning books is illegal. Under the absolute rule of Zokiris, the decadeslong leader of her territory, people are heavily controlled. When Theo vanishes under mysterious circumstances and his name is erased from the Territory Statistics list, Tessa’s 135-year-old neighbor, Miriam, gives the family contraband books that become central to figuring out Theo’s whereabouts. Most books have long since been seized and stored away in Building 903; Tessa is intrigued by their presence in her home, while her mother is terrified. Lowry, the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Giver (1993), shines in her creation of uncomfortably believable dystopian societies. Tessa’s painfully limited world is fully imagined, with its own history, laws, and norms. Her relationship with her brother reads as realistic and tender and is crucial to the mystery. Miriam is the most strongly developed character: wise and independent, unafraid and hopeful. While the climb to the book’s climax is captivating, the hurried resolution is disappointing. The powerful messaging around the importance of literature and imagination certainly resonates, however. The main characters present white.
A successful call for creating and imagining, even if the story itself falls short. (Dystopian. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780063515109
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2026
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