A deliberately paced school tale of friendship, elemental intrigue, and danger.
In this YA fantasy debut, superpowered twins attend a prestigious academy while investigating their father’s death.
Fourteen-year-old twins CJ and Nikki Andrews are Deviants, able to manifest fire and ice, respectively. Eight years ago, their father, Todd, died while on security duty at Navia’s Academy for Preternaturals in Winona, Illinois. Sam, the twins’ mother, is now ready to send them to the school so they can train to harness their powers. The handsome, athletic CJ basks in the attention of his new female classmates. The introverted Nikki researches the details surrounding their father’s death by gunshot wound, starting with the Ghost Scarlet, a Deviant who uses her ability to run a terrorist cult. Despite meeting colorful students and staff, like teacher Jacob Lucas and security guard William Milord, the siblings bridle at the academy’s structure. A mental block keeps CJ from manifesting fire at will, and he receives the embarrassing rank of 3.8, eliminating him from playing sports. An emergency lockdown, meanwhile, earns Nikki detention as she attempts to learn more about the Ghost Scarlet’s recent activities. New friendships form throughout the school year, but the twins also learn the truth behind Mr. Lucas’ words when he says, “The forces against us and our nation now are...beyond anything America has faced before.” In her novel, Carter splices some X-Men DNA with that of Harry Potter to give fantasy fans a school where anything can happen. Teachers at Navia have exotic animal familiars, like Ms. Holly’s clouded leopard, Cinya. The twins are enjoyably snarky with each other, as when discussing the X-shaped scar on Mr. Milord’s face (“it’s a safe bet that his hands didn’t slip while he was shaving”). Weekend visits with their mother are endearing, but catching her up on events at school sometimes hampers the narrative. Carter’s tiered power system—with the elements fire, ice, water, electricity, and acid coming first, followed by rare Special Abilities like telekinesis—is presented clearly for evenhanded exploration. The relationship that blossoms between CJ and Mr. Milord offers fans a further juicy mystery.
A deliberately paced school tale of friendship, elemental intrigue, and danger.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-692-84139-6
Page Count: 694
Publisher: Publisher Services
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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