Sixteen-year-old Ella was born in a lab, part of NuPet, a company that sells female companions that aren’t even considered...
In this thriller, a genetically modified girl known as a pet realizes that she and others like her won’t truly be free until they topple the company that created them.
Sixteen-year-old Ella was born in a lab, part of NuPet, a company that sells female companions that aren’t even considered human. Ella is free from former owner Congressman John Kimble but remains confined with other pets at a Canadian refugee center. She escapes the center to reunite with her love, Penn—the congressman’s son—and gets help from fellow liberated pet Missy. On their way to Connecticut, the girls stop by black markets, where free agent pets can find jobs. It’s there that Ella sees the horrible things pets have to do for men. She still wants to return to Penn but now plans to find damaging evidence against NuPet. She and Missy, however, are not prepared for what awaits them at one of the company’s kennels. The novel impressively builds momentum, constantly advancing the story with a number of anticipatory sequences. Readers, for example, won’t know what to expect once the girls reach the black market in Buffalo or when Ella climbs a trellis for access to a bedroom window at Kimble’s home. The kennel that Ella and Missy eventually infiltrate is also appropriately disturbing, filled with atrocities and an ominous “red door” where the worst, presumably, happens. Distrust becomes an ever present concern, from Seth, apparently accommodating but still a black market employee, to Missy, whose reason for coming to Ella’s aid isn’t exactly clear. The notion of men objectifying women remains unambiguous, but Birch (Perfected, 2015, etc.) touches upon other themes with subtlety and without partisanship, issues such as artificial insemination and abortion. Though Ella’s yearning to see Penn again is sentimental, the author fills her pages with spirited details from the girl’s memory: Penn “was the taste of chocolate on my lips. He was sweetness. He was heat.” The novel, the second in a series, sets up another sequel while managing to wrap up everything satisfactorily—but not before a few surprises.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63375-127-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Dec. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning.
A romantically entangled stepbrother and stepsister in Los Angeles navigate their tumultuous history and take their relationship to new levels in this translated title by an Argentinian author.
Nick and Noah are madly in love: Their mutual attraction is established as the book opens with Noah’s 18th birthday party, during which she and Nick have an explicitly described sexual encounter behind the pool house. This fiery scene sets the stage for twists and turns in the lovers’ journey, including a separation when Noah is forced to go on a monthlong mother-daughter European tour. But reminders of their pasts (chronicled in the 2023 series opener, My Fault) threaten to undermine their stability. Nick’s wealthy estranged mother makes an unfortunate appearance, while Noah is haunted by the trauma of her father’s violent death. The blend of everyday complications (jealousy, parental disapproval) with frothy visions of high-society life is at once lacking in subtlety and intimately irresistible. The series initially gained popularity on Wattpad, and the novel follows the episodic structure typical of works on that site; sensual encounters occur at reliable intervals. Still, the characters and their milieu feel formulaic, and the writing is stilted. The differences between the two—Nick is five years older and has an office job; Noah has just finished high school—makes their suffocatingly possessive relationship feel particularly squirm-worthy. Nick and Noah and their families read white.
Plenty of heat but not enough substance to keep the fire burning. (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Dec. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781728290768
Page Count: 450
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
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