A serious tale of attempting reinvention at the cost of rending reality.
An exploration of the multiverse and mourning.
Sixteen-year-old Winnie Schulde knows that her life could be different, for she can see splinters, or divergences from her current timeline. Winnie is able to see what could happen, and wonders if she could change what did happen, since her curse manifested upon—or maybe caused—her mother’s death 8 years ago. Exploited and experimented upon by her abrasive, emotionally abusive father and afraid to confide in her only friend, rich girl Dora, or her dad’s handsome lab assistant, Scott, Winnie worries that her powers could be misused or misunderstood. Being a German immigrant amid the tensions of World War II and openly interested in science and especially physics, Winnie fears attracting unwanted scrutiny. Soon, she’s swept up in a mystery, entangled in the not-so-secret Manhattan Project, and confronted with the existence of another universe. Given the chance to be popular, pretty, and loved, Winnie must decide if her happiness is worth world-shaking, physics-bending side effects. Lacking the levity that often accompanies time-travel tales and heavy on the theoretical science and historical stakes, Winnie’s story grapples with deep personal and philosophical dilemmas. Interpersonal dynamics prove just as explosive as interdimensional ones in Norris’ debut novel. All characters read as White.
A serious tale of attempting reinvention at the cost of rending reality. (Science fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-20303-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: April 13, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
A romance born from danger with a fantastic buildup.
Secrets of the past and familial tensions abound in this sequel that teases forbidden romance.
Quell’s connection to her toushana, or dark magic, poses such a great threat to the magical Order of grand Houses, haughty debutantes, and high-stakes bureaucracy that the powerful Dragun brotherhood has determined she must die. Jordan, a former lover still hurt by Quell’s decision to bind to her toushana, is leading the charge—and unbeknownst to them both, Yagrin, his brother who has long hated the Order, has sided with Quell under false pretenses. The narration alternates among the voices of Quell, Jordan, and Nore, who wants a simpler life than her role as heir to the House of Ambrose can afford her; she’s dedicated to resolving this problem by any means necessary. The racially diverse cast of characters is large and at times unwieldy, but as Quell decides to leave the safe houses that have kept her hidden and reenter the world of lavish magical balls to find her long-lost mother, reminders of the earlier volume—beautiful gowns, cattiness, fish-out-of-water awkwardness—bring all the threads together, allowing for continued worldbuilding and a fuller story. Ultimately, Quell and Jordan’s tension boils over into the passionate romance it was always meant to be as the two partner with Yagrin and Nore to reveal the Order’s biggest secrets and potentially change the future of magic forever.
A romance born from danger with a fantastic buildup. (author’s note, histories of the houses, map, lexicon) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593527733
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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