A slow but delightful fantasy with a likable and powerful young heroine.
A Texas teen learns that her new school houses a secret society that trains students with special abilities in this debut YA novel.
Phoebe Douse—pronounced “like Zeus, but with a D”—loses her beloved grandmother Naan. Shortly before her death, Naan assures her granddaughter that Phoebe has great (but still unknown) abilities. Phoebe guesses she may have precognition, but once schoolmates hear this tidbit, she becomes an outcast, from middle school all the way to high school. So when she receives admittance to The Murray School in Scotland, despite not even applying, Phoebe is all too happy to accept. It’s a typical school except that a handful of students have abilities, such as knowing what others are thinking. A couple of the teachers, too, are unusual. Dr. Braithwaite teaches chemistry but focuses on strange concoctions like Bobalgong and Totosol. As it turns out, the Secret Society for Special Abilities and Artefacts invites gifted students to The Murray School for potential training. Phoebe is indeed precognitive and capable of even more. But then so was Cara, a former student who inexplicably vanished. Phoebe; her roommate, Zoe Houlihan; and other new friends delve into the Cara mystery and uncover a few of the school’s dark secrets. Though the different special abilities are all familiar (for example, channeling spirits), the gradual reveal of each student’s skill is a treat. Nevertheless, Phoebe, the ever humble and appealing protagonist, has the best ability. As she doesn’t fully understand it, she, like readers, is surprised by certain things she can do. In this fantasy tale, Samuels sets a leisurely pace and thoroughly develops the characters. This enhances the mystery, as it often involves trusting or distrusting fellow students and faculty members. The author rounds out her tale with increasing suspense (disappearances within Phoebe’s small group of pals) and a continually evolving backstory starting decades earlier and including Naan and the secret society’s genesis. As this is a series launch, the novel ends with copious material for sequels.
A slow but delightful fantasy with a likable and powerful young heroine.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73228-466-1
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Valued Educational Services, LLC
Review Posted Online: July 10, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
Garrett’s failure to produce any sympathetic characters makes her debut tough going.
Burglaries turn deadly for a group of spoiled teenagers.
Harper, Alex, Sarah, Paisley, Benji, and Gin come from similarly privileged homes. Their parents make up for a lack of commitment to their high school offspring by providing unfettered access to life’s material benefits: cars, clothes, and costly vacations. When getting drunk on booze filched from their folks’ well-stocked liquor cabinets palls, they invent an exciting new game. Each time one of the teens’ families goes skiing in Vail or snorkeling in the Bahamas, a designated member of the pack breaks into the unattended house and collects an assortment of trophies to be pawned for ready cash. The rules of the looting are strict. Only one member breaks into each house, nothing is to be stolen that can’t be replaced with insurance money, and nothing stolen from other members of the group. Harper adds one more rule: no stealing from her deaf sister, Maggie. After one full round of felonious fun, the wheels start to come off the crime spree. Sarah dies from a drug overdose. The police can’t decide if it’s an accident or suicide, but Harper is sure it’s neither. She thinks Sarah is too smart to overdose on her own and too conceited to kill herself. And since no one outside her little group exists for Harper, one of her fellow thieves must have killed her. Going to the authorities is a no-go because it would reveal the group’s role in the burglaries and spoil their chances of admission to an Ivy League college. So Harper and her chums sit around and wait to see if anything else bad happens. It does. Unfortunately, even Harper’s protectiveness toward her sister carries its own whiff of smugness.
Garrett’s failure to produce any sympathetic characters makes her debut tough going.Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-929345-30-4
Page Count: 206
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
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