An intriguing romantic fantasy with characters readers will root for.
Teens are doomed to repeatedly fall in love—and kill each other.
Welsh teen Branwen is the latest reincarnation of Evelyn, a being who’s over 1,000 years old and is fated to die, again and again, shortly before their 18th birthday. Intertwined in their fate is Arden, with whom they have fallen in love over the course of 100 lifetimes, and who is their perpetual murderer/victim: When Arden kills Evelyn, Arden immediately dies as well, and vice versa. This time, Branwen needs to stay alive long enough to donate stem cells to her sister, a leukemia patient. To do so, she’ll need to figure out who Arden is in their current form and convince them to help. The story is interspersed with chapters from their previous incarnations, offering glimpses of a variety of times and places and helping to create a sense of urgency as the mystery unfolds. Notably, they are French soldiers who die in the Great War and, in the 1930s, Algerians raised to hate the French colonizers. Steven delves into the inherently queer concept of swapping bodies and switching genders; Evelyn doesn’t have a strong attachment to living as a particular gender, but Arden expresses a preference for “being a boy.” Some of the incarnations enable the author to explore same-sex longing and romance in various contexts, although the brevity of these interludes leads at times to insufficiently nuanced representations of the cultures at hand.
An intriguing romantic fantasy with characters readers will root for. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 4, 2025
ISBN: 9781250333889
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2025
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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