by Katherine Webber ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2023
Excessively drawn out.
Bitsy Clark knows how to show respect to her hometown of Ember Grove.
She drops coins in the Founder’s Fountain and follows the local superstitions, like wearing rings of twisted strands of hair so you won’t lose your companion. So when her best friend, Amy, suggests they sneak into the yearly Revelry, Bitsy knows they shouldn’t; the Revelry at the end of summer is for graduating high school seniors, and the girls have only just finished their sophomore year. But Amy insists, and Bitsy always goes along with Amy. The party takes place in the woods, and no one ever reveals specifics, just saying that it’s life-changing. The next morning, neither of the girls can remember what happened, but their costumes are singed, their hair is damp, and there are raised scars on the fingers where they wore their hair rings. Bitsy also starts seeing a mysterious girl from the Revelry with white-blond hair who invites her into the woods after dark. Can Bitsy unravel the mystery before her life is irrevocably changed? The atmospheric prose feels overwritten and is infused with old superstitions reminiscent of tales of European fae; in this world, magic exists but as a fickle, double-edged sword. The girls’ friendship is at the heart of the narrative, but it’s manipulated by events and overanalyzed to such an extent that readers may feel it is better off abandoned. Main characters seem to be white.
Excessively drawn out. (Speculative fiction. 13-17)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781338828528
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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by Sabaa Tahir ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 28, 2015
Bound to be popular.
A suddenly trendy trope—conflict and romance between members of conquering and enslaved races—enlivened by fantasy elements loosely drawn from Arabic tradition (another trend!).
In an original, well-constructed fantasy world (barring some lazy naming), the Scholars have lived under Martial rule for 500 years, downtrodden and in many cases enslaved. Scholar Laia has spent a lifetime hiding her connection to the Resistance—her parents were its leaders—but when her grandparents are killed and her brother’s captured by Masks, the eerie, silver-faced elite soldiers of the Martial Empire, Laia must go undercover as a slave to the terrifying Commandant of Blackcliff Military Academy, where Martials are trained for battle. Meanwhile, Elias, the Commandant’s not-at-all-beloved son, wants to run away from Blackcliff, until he is named an Aspirant for the throne by the mysterious red-eyed Augurs. Predictably, action, intrigue, bloodshed and some pounding pulses follow; there’s betrayal and a potential love triangle or two as well. Sometimes-lackluster prose and a slight overreliance on certain kinds of sexual violence as a threat only slightly diminish the appeal created by familiar (but not predictable) characters and a truly engaging if not fully fleshed-out fantasy world.
Bound to be popular. (Fantasy. 13 & up)Pub Date: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-59514-803-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2015
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by Colleen Houck ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2024
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce.
Houck kicks off a new story arc in the world of the Tiger’s Curse series with new tigers who live in a northerly setting.
The death of their widowed royal mother touches off a crisis in the Kievian Empire; neither Stacia nor Verusha Stepanov, 17-year-old sword-wielding twin sisters, wants to be named tsarina. But questions of succession get put on hold when a battle with a sorcerer inexplicably turns the two into nonspeaking Siberian tigers. Hints of a cure send them, along with a growing entourage of men to provide assistance (and, perforce, do all the talking), on a long trek. Though most of the cast sticks to genre type, Houck throws in a wild card in the form of hunky, inarticulate Nikolai, who joins the quest because he is enthralled by Verusha—and who also killed his whole family in an act of revenge. Occasional anachronistic dialogue (e.g., “Are you ready, ladies?”) disrupts the tale’s generally earnest tone, as do the clumsy attempts at banter. A third tiger, snarky and blind but conveniently able to see through others’ eyes, trots in late in the story. The events in this setup volume unfold with many a flashback and change in point of view and head toward no sort of resolution—only the cave-dwelling White Shaman of the Tundra’s advice that further journeys are in the offing. The central cast in this Russian-inspired fantasy world presents white; the Indigenous population includes nomadic reindeer herders.
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798212221696
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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