An escapist fantasy of upgraded family and financial circumstances.
Seventeen-year-old Maritza—Ritzy—is used to her flaky mom’s ever changing pseudo-spiritual obsessions, but things take an unexpected twist when she embarks on a voyage to Mexico, leaving Ritzy behind.
To her mom, this is encouraging her daughter to find her own path. To the state of Florida, this is child abandonment. Ritzy, who is white, finds herself removed from her apartment and placed in the system, fortuitously landing with a loving foster mom in an affluent island community. Ritzy navigates the shift in her identity that comes with this move from strip malls and concrete to country clubs and beach bonfires. Her African-American best friend and Indian-American crush feel a world away in this community that seems to be homogeneously white, as indicated by the sudden lack of racial descriptors. She also grapples with a family secret revealed by her entree into foster care. Ritzy starts to settle when sparks fly between her and Spencer, the privileged yet troubled boy next door. When her mom returns, Ritzy faces a tough choice between the life she has and the life that’s possible. Family drama, romance, and Ritzy’s scrappy charm provide enough intrigue to keep readers turning the pages, though no new territory is explored in any depth. Its portrayal of life in the American foster care system bears little resemblance to reality.
An escapist fantasy of upgraded family and financial circumstances. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 25, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-374-30619-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A complex and riveting tapestry.
Three lives unexpectedly collide when ruthless gods set them on a course to complete dangerous missions.
Brown-eyed, dark-haired Artair is one of the Sleepless, a monk whose body is occupied by the Other nightly. Black-haired Lucian Prideson, who has skin “the color of cream,” awakens in Artair’s body while the monk sleeps, but his own past remains a mystery. Unsure who he is or why his soul occupies another’s body, Lucian begins to sense a change coming, one that could release him from his captivity. When a mage to the Bloody Claw, a violent god, demands that Artair retrieve a monster from the Jih Forest, which is located in a land controlled by the Queen of Serpents, the monk is forced out of the safety of the monastery and into a world of monsters, both human and otherwise. Elver, a human orphan sacrificed to the Bloody Claw, has been transformed into a monster with poisonous skin by the Queen of Serpents and made to guard the Jih Forest. Ordered to rescue the jih monster that Artair has abducted, Elver, who’s “alarmingly pale,” with white hair and yellow eyes, must leave her familiar forest and reluctantly reacquaint herself with humans. Elver, Artair, and Lucian navigate complicated relationships as their paths entwine. In this duology opener, award-winner Williams’ rich worldbuilding supports an action-packed fantasy that features original character dynamics and a thoughtful exploration of themes of invisible prisons, lost identity, and belonging.
A complex and riveting tapestry. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781250409256
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
For murder-mystery fans, there’s more than enough horror and gore to sustain this effort (and several more), making for a...
A scary gorefest of murder and mayhem, not for the faint of heart.
High school best friends Meg and Minnie join a weekend-long, alcohol-infused party on a small island off the coast of Washington. Their parents think they’re elsewhere; in fact no one knows they’re there except the ferry crew and the other eight attendees. A fierce storm is battering the island, and the power fails, plunging them into darkness and complete isolation from the rest of the world. Then teens start to turn up dead in rather gruesome, vividly depicted ways: hanged, impaled by driftwood (really!), electrocuted, etc. At first, it appears that the deaths could be caused by a bizarre combination of suicide and accident, but as the body count soars, the teens have to choose: Is one of them a serial killer, or is the murderer stalking them from beyond the group? Clues are just amorphous enough to sustain the mystery, and since mistakes are lethal, the suspense is high. Meanwhile, it also becomes obvious that some of the stereotypical teens share relationships that weren’t apparent at first, i.e., Meg’s far-overworked yearning to pair off with T.J., the handsome guy that unstable Minnie lusts for.
For murder-mystery fans, there’s more than enough horror and gore to sustain this effort (and several more), making for a breathless read. (Mystery/horror. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-211878-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2012
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