Future and past selves provide a creative take on romance in a high-stakes, high-concept mystery that trusts its readers’...
Time-traveling, 23rd-century Bree creates a multiple-century mess that uncovers a conspiracy and, possibly, true love.
Bree is a Shifter: Her brain mutation enables time travel. Shifters follow strict rules during their Shifts, relying on microchips in their heads to direct and track their movements through time and to prevent something mysterious and bad. Bree’s mother is a time-traveling cautionary tale—theories behind her mysterious, Shift-related coma include a malfunctioning microchip, tampering or perhaps something more sinister. To pay her mother’s hospital bills, Bree takes an illegal smuggling job through time. She botches it, losing her parcel. When she returns to retrieve it, she discovers that she already has—or at least, her future self has, and also had a relationship with a handsome boy from the past—awkward! Cryptic warnings from her future self and Finn’s vow to protect her lead to her accidentally bringing Finn to the future-present. Trying to fix her mess, she follows her future self’s clues toward a threat to the integrity of time. Initially disorienting and then seemingly impossibly tangled, the complicated plot will leave readers dying to know if debut author Akins can pull all of her pieces into a cohesive whole—and she does so with aplomb.
Future and past selves provide a creative take on romance in a high-stakes, high-concept mystery that trusts its readers’ intelligence. (Science fiction. 13 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-250-03098-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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