Despite its topical pandemic plot, the novel brings nothing new to the genre.
“No touching today for a healthy tomorrow.”
After a deadly pandemic wiped out most of the world’s population 50 years ago, the Key Corp has emerged as humanity’s savior by creating shielding technology, imposing laws against touching, and controlling every aspect of life, from matching teens with significant others to assigning their careers paths from a very young age. Elodie is a nurse matched to a fiance she is not too sure about, but since questioning the Key is unheard of, she complies. Aiden is a rebel with a secret, changing career paths frequently until he is threatened with Rehabilitation and ends up working at the morgue. When Elodie and Aiden meet, everything changes, and Elodie starts to question everything she has been told. First in a new series, the novel fails to impart the fear necessary for its worldbuilding to work, between its risible villains, a too-easy-to-infiltrate evil corporation, and a sketchily developed connection between the main characters. The rules imposed by the Key Corp crumble under scrutiny, and the public’s overall conformity and compliance with them seem utterly implausible: Touching and sex are illegal and harshly punished, yet teenagers are still matched, married off, and expected to live together and start families (though babies are grown in laboratories). Elodie and Aiden are both brown-skinned.
Despite its topical pandemic plot, the novel brings nothing new to the genre. (Science fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-982548-03-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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
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
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