A lightly developed take on choice and the multiverse.
Four teenagers living in parallel universes must unravel the mystery behind their existence.
When Californian Tati sent off a saliva sample for DNA testing as part of her high school ethnic studies project, she hoped she would learn more about her Russian birthparents. Instead Tati receives inconclusive results. Meanwhile, Ana—also in California and taking ethnic studies—gets nonhuman DNA results that stall her project’s progress. Tanya lives a sheltered life with her mother in Germany while in Russia, an isolated Tatyana lives with her famous scientist father. While circumstances vary for these four Tatiana/Tatyanas, one thing remains true for all of them: unexplained seizures (or me-zures, as Tati dubs them). These seizures, they discover, bring opportunities for them to meet and communicate. As turmoil infiltrates their four universes, it’s a race against time to figure out their shared history and stop the mastermind behind it. Berla (Beau & Bett, 2019, etc.) transitions from universe to universe in an often subtle flow. Readers will enjoy puzzling out how decisions big and small reverberate across the girls’ different lives. The stakes and the tension in the climax are low, however, as conflict buildup takes a back seat to backstory. The four main characters and most others are assumed white; Tati's Indian American girlfriend, Priya, is an exception, and her family is unfortunately portrayed in a two-dimensional and negatively stereotypical way.
A lightly developed take on choice and the multiverse. (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-63583-040-8
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: July 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer.
Even a war driven by gods can’t sever communication between journalist lovers Iris and Roman in this steampunk-adjacent romantic adventure.
A prologue sets the scene: Dacre, a god strummed to sleep by magic in Divine Rivals (2023), will not slumber forever. His willingness to wage war to acquire more powerful magic leads him to lay waste to entire towns, and Inkridden Tribune journalist Iris Winnow and war correspondent Roman Kitt can no longer be assured the other is safe—or even still alive. In Iris’ world of cigarette smoke, copper pipes, and driving goggles, colleagues affectionately call each other by their last names, watch each other’s backs, and face danger on the front lines. Though Underling Correspondent Roman is traveling with Dacre’s army, he questions why he was healed of his grievous wounds, while at the same time, he gradually recovers memories of Iris and recalls that she was special to him. Their magically connected typewriters allow for the rediscovery of their love and for communicating potentially deadly information about the invasion of Hawk Shire. The story primarily unfolds from Iris’ and Roman’s viewpoints, and while the prose occasionally uses well-worn phrases, Anglophiles will particularly enjoy the worldbuilding, and returning readers will welcome appearances from Capt. Keegan Torres; her wife, Marisol; and Dacre’s archnemesis—and wife—the goddess Enva. Main characters present white.
The well-paced romantic tension is a highlight of this enjoyable duology closer. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250857453
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
Truly fantastic.
This dark fantasy duology opener has a magic school, a death, and five students who find themselves stranded in the wilderness.
Ren Monroe is a promising student wizard at Balmerick, a private school in the city of Kathor. Along with her best friend, Timmons, Ren is one of the few welfare students attending on a scholarship, and despite being one of the most accomplished people at the school, finding a placement in one of the top houses is proving difficult and is a hurdle in the way of the secret mission Ren has set out to accomplish. When a portal spell goes awry and Ren, Timmons, and four other students from different walks of life are thrown together into the Dires, an uncharted land where the last dragons lived, one of them ends up dead and the rest need to learn to work together to make their way back home before they succumb to the harsh environment or the terrifying revenant following them. This may well be the chance Ren was looking for to prove her worth. Placing elements of a locked-room mystery and an original magic system within the familiar trappings of a school for magic, this is a no-holds-barred tale of revenge, atonement, and the pursuit of justice set in a world diverse in skin color and social classes. Ren is a protagonist for the ages: equal parts smart, calculating, and ruthless, forming a lethal package as an avenging angel.
Truly fantastic. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 28, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-66591-868-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
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