Vivid urban jungle SF settings and vigorous storytelling—if readers can overlook Katniss Everdeen’s shadow.
In this post-apocalyptic series opener, two young people from the semi-anarchic streets find themselves at the center of unrest and a brewing revolution in a police state.
Gschwandtner’s tale is part of the alarmingly fecund SF genre starring YA characters fomenting revolt in a future dystopia. The setting is an unspecified country sometime after the ecological and economic “Collapse” of civilization. Widespread communication has ceased, and a city called Infinius is now a harsh, self-contained metropolis. Its dictator, Villinkash, uses a sort of sonic brainwashing to turn much of the populace into regimented proles, largely ignorant of the past and bombarded by Orwellian media propaganda. Meanwhile, children either run feral in the streets or suffer in Child Holding Centers. Teenage Niko ran away at age 12 from such government control, persevering among outcasts, loners, and predator gangs. But he has a guardian/benefactor, a mystery man called Huston. Niko is also cautiously friendly with El, a beautiful girl raised—and protected from ever present rape threats—amid an aging, nearly vanished order of nuns (and one holdover Roman Catholic priest) that the Regime tolerates. Niko enters The Race, a cruel but popular annual motorcycle spectacle designed to kill all but one of the 13 contestants. Huston ensures that Niko emerges triumphant from the barbaric Race, but when the teen shares his victory with El—instead of following the tradition of deflowering a state-offered virgin—the couple incur the wrath of Villinkash. While characterizations and psychological motivations are nicely detailed, readers may get a sense of a literary YA dystopia buffet cart stopping for extra-large helpings of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series. As Niko and El go rapidly from Infinius idols to enemies of the Regime (and of each other), readers will feel a little whiplash at the change of fortune even if it serves the genre’s mechanics (Villinkash really isn’t much more than a thuggish President Snow). Closing acts reveal that what seems to be a spontaneous rebellion in fact has deeper, more calculated intrigues behind it, though the volume ends with many narrative strands left dangling. Gschwandtner is bolder than most writers in this territory in deploying R-rated language and elements of violence and lust, though she never lapses into poor taste in the process.
Vivid urban jungle SF settings and vigorous storytelling—if readers can overlook Katniss Everdeen’s shadow. (discussion topics, acknowledgments, author bio)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-68463-051-6
Page Count: 264
Publisher: SparkPress
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions.
A teenage girl refuses a medical procedure to remove her heart and her emotions.
June lives in a future in which a reclusive Scientist has pioneered a procedure to remove hearts, thus eliminating all “sadness, anxiety, and anger.” The downside is that it numbs pleasurable feelings, too. Most people around June have had the procedure done; for young people, in part because doing so helps them become more focused and successful. Before long, June is the only one among her peers who still has her heart. When her parents decide it’s time for her to have the procedure so she can become more focused in school, June hatches a plan to pretend to go through with it. She also investigates a way to restore her beloved sister’s heart, joining forces with Max, a classmate who’s also researching the Scientist because he has started to feel again despite having had his heart removed. The pair’s journey is somewhat rushed and improbable, as is the resolution they achieve. However, the story’s message feels relevant and relatable to teens, and the artwork effectively sets the scene, with bursts of color popping throughout an otherwise black-and-white landscape, reflecting the monochromatic, heartless reality of June’s world. There are no ethnic or cultural markers in the text; June has paper-white skin and dark hair, and Max has dark skin and curly black hair.
A fast-paced dip into the possibility of a world without human emotions. (Graphic speculative fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: June 13, 2023
ISBN: 9780063116214
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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