Readers won't learn history from this anachronistic and sometimes-inconsistent adventure, but they might enjoy some...
A Bronze Age desert adventure continues in this second trilogy entry, spicing its inspirational romance with the sybaritic wickedness of pagan sex worshippers.
Jayden and Kadesh, having failed to rescue Jayden's tribe from her villainous betrothed (Forbidden, 2014), race through the desert to Kadesh's home kingdom of Sariba. They flee the conquering armies of those tribes whose ambition is empowered by the pagan Temple of Ashtoreth. The Temple of Ashtoreth has already seduced Jayden's beloved sister into ungodly wickedness, so shameful for a desert princess. Jayden and Kadesh are both descendants of the biblical patriarch Abraham, and though Jayden seems to vacillate between worshipping an ancient Mother Goddess and "the God of Abraham," she and Kadesh clearly despise "the cults of gods and goddesses who demand your body and soul." Indeed, this particular goddess cult seems to be a murdering, drugging, brainwashing crop of fiends—for when Kadesh and Jayden finally arrive in Sariba, the machinations of the debauched temple acolytes might prevent their marriage and doom the kingdom. Jayden's journey through the ancient Arabia of The Book of Mormon leaves her plenty of opportunity to learn sword fighting, befriend the Queen of Sheba, and take bubble baths. A cliffhanger leaves all that Jayden's achieved at risk.
Readers won't learn history from this anachronistic and sometimes-inconsistent adventure, but they might enjoy some angst-ridden passionate yearning. (author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Feb. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-219501-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 10, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2015
Combat classes, propagandistic emails and the disappearance of students create a bleak read more reminiscent of The Hunger...
Boarding school students prepare for war, but the enemy may already be among them in this tense teen fantasy, third in the Shadow Grail series.
Spirit White and her four equally artistically named friends are drifting apart after their victorious battle against the Wild Hunt, but Spirit suspects that the war is not yet over. Breakthrough—a game-development corporation and doomsday cabal—has infiltrated the staff and taken over the nearby town of Radial. Spirit cannot rely on her friends, as they succumb to Breakthrough’s temptations and traps, nor on magic, for she is the only student whose power has not yet manifested. Relegated to the sidelines, only Spirit makes the connections between Breakthrough’s unsubtle villainy and muddled Arthurian mythology, and between a 1970s tragedy and the rebirth of evil. Spirit just wants to cuddle with her boyfriend, Burke, pass her classes and attend a disaster-free dance, but she will have to defeat Mordred and his reincarnated followers first. Lackey and Edghill tackle teen issues and fantasy tropes with equal skill but delay the resolution until the next book, leaving readers to slog through 300 pages of ill-explained oppression.
Combat classes, propagandistic emails and the disappearance of students create a bleak read more reminiscent of The Hunger Games than Hogwarts. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: April 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7653-2825-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
Complex questions are carefully presented but answered too simply in this nevertheless intriguing exploration.
In an engaging if predictable cautionary tale, 14-year-old Cameron stops taking medications for his schizophreniform disorder and finds that his choice brings unwanted consequences.
Off his medication, Cameron hears voices. He likes having some of the voices in his head, such as the even-keeled, informative Professor and the alluring Girl, a newer arrival. (They are helpfully represented, as are the other voices, by recognizably different typefaces.) His desire to hold onto the voices makes his quitting his meds believable and compelling. The central ambiguity—the way some aspects of Cameron’s unmedicated state feel desirable and important, even while others are confusing or frightening—is maintained almost to the end. A new, intimidating voice Cameron calls the Other Guy urges Cameron to take risks and be cruel, and readers feel the exhilaration Cameron experiences at obeying the Other Guy’s commands. Cameron’s parents and sister are realistically drawn, with believably flawed reactions to Cameron’s condition, as is his friend Nina, a classmate with depression from the Emotionally Disturbed Program. A pat ending, however, undermines the question of whether Cameron ought to be allowed to go without medication, as does an afterword in which the author, a clinical psychologist, speculates that “one day, Cameron might very well be free of the disease forever, which is his fondest hope.”
Complex questions are carefully presented but answered too simply in this nevertheless intriguing exploration. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: April 16, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-547-61215-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
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