by Kerrie Faye ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 26, 2024
Riveting adolescent melodrama powers this remarkable urban fantasy with series potential.
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A Kentucky teen survives clinical death only to discover supernatural abilities and a startling history in Faye’s YA debut.
Sophomore Ember O’Neill hopes this high-school year will be better than the last. Sadly, she remains a social pariah who’s mercilessly mocked and bullied (“look at how she dresses. She’s like an old lady”). Ember has a few people on her side, like her loyal pal, Erick Grossman, and the new girl he’s befriended, Hallee Wilson. But that doesn’t stop a bully from pulling a prank that technically kills her—for 20 minutes—before paramedics revive her. She subsequently learns that the prescription pills she’s long been taking may have been stunting her abilities; Ember has superhuman strength and speed (and something even more astonishing). Clarification as to where her powers stem from may lie with Adam, the mysterious guy who keeps popping up in her dreams. Meanwhile, her social status gets a tweak as she stands up to her bullies with renewed vigor and catches the eye of more than one boy, including the just-transferred Logan Lauder. Faye aptly blends supernatural elements with the realities of adolescence as Ember struggles to adjust to her body’s changes. There are other relatable turns as well, from her possible pill addiction to her mother’s excessive drinking. As this is likely the start of a series, the story introduces numerous questions involving such things as an ancient order of assassins, visions of archangel Michael, and Ember’s family. Mostly, it’s a fully engaging teen drama—Ember juggles romantic possibilities, including an older guy, and, as an “outcast,” she is understandably wary of others. The snobs and bullies at school make great villains, while endearing companions such as Erick, Hallee, and her “oversized” dog, Bear, consistently and wholeheartedly alleviate the tension.
Riveting adolescent melodrama powers this remarkable urban fantasy with series potential.Pub Date: Feb. 26, 2024
ISBN: 9781509252480
Page Count: 414
Publisher: Wild Rose Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Katherine Rundell ; illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2024
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
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Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
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SEEN & HEARD
by Lauren Roberts ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2023
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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