A lyrical exploration of grief, art, and what remains when love runs out of time.
A grief-stricken young college student discovers that love and loss can tangle time itself in this moody, slow-burn story.
After her boyfriend Carter’s funeral, art student Nieve Monroe drifts through a summer steeped in guilt and tinged with emotionally resonant colors. Raised by her superstitious maternal grandmother, Grandee, whose mystical sayings once felt foolish, Nieve now sees meaning in every hue: black for loss, red for love, indigo for goodbye. When she returns to Suttleton Academy of Fine Arts, classmates whisper that she’s responsible for Carter’s drowning, although Nieve can’t remember what really happened. Her cousin, Linden, and Carter’s furious best friend, Max, orbit her grief until a supernatural twist, foreshadowed by Grandee’s belief that time is “a fickle thing—a story,” allows Nieve to travel back in time to the first day of college. Aching realism is balanced with luminous magic, and Dwyer’s prose feels painted rather than written: Her language shimmers with sensory detail and emotional honesty. Nieve is caught in a loop of pain and healing, continually re-experiencing fragments of the past. Nieve’s voice—sarcastic, self-punishing, and sincere—offers an anchor through the fog of mourning. A romance that follows offers her a way to reclaim her own color-saturated identity, making the time-loop device a metaphor for healing. This textured novel offers catharsis as much as closure. Main characters are cued white.
A lyrical exploration of grief, art, and what remains when love runs out of time. (Speculative romance. 14-18)Pub Date: March 24, 2026
ISBN: 9781250355133
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A fantasy with complex characterization that will build anticipation for the next entry.
Three young people find their places in a world of vengeance and destiny in National Book Award winner Tahir’s duology opener set in the multicultural world of her An Ember in the Ashes series.
Aiz, from the impoverished nation of Kegar, seeks revenge against Tiral bet-Hiwa, an air squadron commander who, as a child, murdered Aiz’s fellow orphans. Guided by a voice claiming to be Mother Div, Kegar’s first queen, Aiz escapes imprisonment after her failed assassination attempt on Tiral and embarks on a journey to free Mother Div’s trapped spirit. In the Martial Empire, Sirsha, a skilled tracker with magical abilities who’s been banished from her homeland, is saved by a stranger who hires her to hunt an unnatural killer. Quil, the crown prince of the Martial Empire, faces an invasion by the Kegari and the lingering threat of a mysterious force responsible for recent murders, including those of two of his loved ones. As the storylines converge, Sirsha and Quil cross paths, leading to revelations about the insidious force. The story explores the blurred line between good and evil and the lengths one will go to for a better life. Tahir’s deep and intricate worldbuilding requires time for readers to fully grasp. Following a slow start, the plot engages as pieces fall into place, leading up to an unexpected ending. The beautiful writing compensates for the romantic relationships, which develop quickly and somewhat inorganically.
A fantasy with complex characterization that will build anticipation for the next entry. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2024
ISBN: 9780593616949
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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