An absorbing blend of historical fiction, mystery, and magical realism.
The granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor finds herself transported back in time to East Berlin circa 1988 in this time-travel mystery debut.
Ellie Baum is on a school trip to Berlin in the present day when she reaches out for a passing balloon and finds herself inexplicably transported to the same place in a different time, 18 months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Disoriented, she has no choice but to trust the first people she encounters—two teenage outcasts, Kai and Mitzi—who are agents of an underground group that wields magic and science to rescue people from East Berlin using bespelled red balloons. Ellie’s presence confounds even the balloon makers, especially since no one knows how to send her back to her own time. As Kai and Ellie investigate this question, growing closer in the process, the dead bodies of other, failed time travelers start piling up and complicating the mystery. Chapters of Ellie’s story in 1988 East Berlin are interspersed throughout with the story of her grandfather’s miraculous escape from Chelmno, a concentration camp in Poland, in 1942, a narrative that eventually converges with Ellie’s own. Kai is Romani, Ellie is Jewish, and Mitzi is gay, identities that lend deeper significance to this gripping story of disparate facets of European history.
An absorbing blend of historical fiction, mystery, and magical realism. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-8075-2933-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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