Solid action, high stakes and a likable heroine keep the pages turning.
This second installment in a new espionage-action series for girls (Two Lies and a Spy, 2013) provides suspenseful entertainment, although Kari Andrews is no Alex Rider.
The story begins in Paris, where 16-year-old Kari studies at Generation Interpol, training to become a spy like her parents, who turned traitors and abandoned their family in the previous book. Although Kari has real talent in martial arts, it’s difficult to imagine a character less suited to the spy trade. She’s uninterested in and unable to learn languages or the technical aspects of her chosen profession. Throughout the book, Kari shows herself to be a walking bundle of rampant emotions. She can’t control herself even in the most dangerous situations, and her emotional outbursts threaten the success of her mission over and over. Fortunately, handsome Evan keeps her in line, though with some difficulty, by reminding Kari that her little brother Charlie’s life could be lost if she doesn’t calm down. Shadowy enemies have kidnapped the 7-year-old genius, threatening to dismember and then kill him if Kari doesn’t spring a thief from jail. She teams up with Evan and two other friends in a caper that takes the group across Europe and involves a nifty break-in to a highly secure company headquarters.
Solid action, high stakes and a likable heroine keep the pages turning. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0052-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A dystopian world that is all too real and that has much to say about our own.
In an apocalyptic future Canada, Indigenous people have been forced to live on the run to avoid capture by the Recruiters, government military agents who kidnap Indians and confine them to facilities called “schools.”
Orphan Frenchie (Métis) is rescued from the Recruiters by Miigwans (Anishnaabe) along with a small band of other Indians from different nations, most young and each with a tragic story. Miigwans leads the group north to find others, holding on to the belief of safety in numbers. Five years later, Frenchie is now 16, and the bonded travelers have protected one another, strengthened by their loyalty and will to persevere as a people. They must stay forever on alert, just a breath away from capture by the Recruiters or by other Indians who act as their agents. Miigwans reveals that the government has been kidnapping Indians to extract their bone marrow, scientists believing that the key to restoring dreaming to white people is found within their DNA. Frenchie later learns that the truth is even more horrifying. The landscape of North America has been completely altered by climate change, rising oceans having eliminated coastlines and the Great Lakes having been destroyed by pollution and busted oil pipelines. Though the presence of the women in the story is downplayed, Miigwans is a true hero; in him Dimaline creates a character of tremendous emotional depth and tenderness, connecting readers with the complexity and compassion of Indigenous people.
A dystopian world that is all too real and that has much to say about our own. (Science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-77086-486-3
Page Count: 180
Publisher: DCB
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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PROFILES
Aza would claim that opinions about this book are unfairly influenced by “the gut-brain informational cycle,” which makes it...
Nerdfighter Green’s latest takes readers through Indianapolis and the human biome.
Aza Holmes doesn’t feel like herself. But “if half the cells inside of you are not you, doesn’t that challenge the whole notion of me as a singular pronoun…?” When a local billionaire—and the father of her childhood friend, a white boy named Davis—disappears, Aza (who seems to be white) and her BFF, Daisy Ramirez (who is cued as Latina), plot to find him and claim the reward, amid rumors of corruption and an underexplored side plot about semi-immortal reptiles. The story revolves around anxious Aza’s dissociation from her body and life. Daisy chatters about Star Wars fan fiction (and calls Aza “Holmesy” ad nauseam), and Davis monologues about astronomy, while Aza obsesses over infection, the ever present, self-inflicted wound on her finger, and whether she’s “just a deeply flawed line of reasoning.” The thin but neatly constructed plot feels a bit like an excuse for Green to flex his philosophical muscles; teenagers questioning the mysteries of consciousness can identify with Aza, while others might wish that something—anything—really happens. The exploration of Aza’s life-threatening compulsions will resonate deeply with some, titillate others, and possibly trigger those in between.
Aza would claim that opinions about this book are unfairly influenced by “the gut-brain informational cycle,” which makes it hard to say what anyone else will think—but this is the new John Green; people will read this, or not, regardless of someone else’s gut flora. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-525-55536-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Oct. 9, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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BOOK TO SCREEN
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