An uninspired slog through another magical boarding school.
In a bid to save her family, Wild braves brutal entrance exams for Shadowspell Academy.
Texan farm girl Wild lives with her ailing father and younger twin siblings, Billy and Sam. Her mother has passed, and her older brother was killed in an accident at the academy. Now another recruitment letter has appeared, this time addressed to Billy, with an added threat that their whole family will be destroyed if he doesn’t show. Wild shears off her long hair and sets off in his place. But from the moment she heads off to upstate New York, she is faced with constant danger, finally being forced into a helicopter with other captive teens. Wild is a natural contender in the perilous Culling Trials, putting her intuition for danger, penchant for fighting, and love of puzzles to work. A team of misfits forms around her, slowly burgeoning into friendships. But students begin disappearing, and an assassin may be trailing Wild. Suddenly, Wild’s entangled in a mystery, and she’ll do anything to keep her team safe. Her journey leans heavily on tropes derived from Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, with less focus on worldbuilding or character development, leaving little to propel readers through the never-ending gauntlets. Unkind jokes at the expenses of a fat character, a character on the spectrum, and gay people are unredeemed by character growth. All major human characters are white.
An uninspired slog through another magical boarding school. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5107-5510-9
Page Count: 564
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
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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