The disappointingly predictable plot and characters fail to deliver on the novel’s promising opening scene
Believing that the wealthy Gregory family is involved in their friend Willa’s death, a group of one-dimensional teen socialites engage in bumbling efforts to achieve vigilante justice.
Operating under the assumption that James Gregory drowned Willa, while his twin brother and grandfather used the family money and influence to orchestrate a coverup, Willa’s friends form a “revenge club” whose $25,000 dues payments will be used to expose the family’s depravities, thereby destroying its fortune and social status. The girls’ easy access to thousands of dollars in cash is only the first of many improbable plot devices. An overreliance upon convenience—and the inexplicable—eliminates opportunities for the clever moments of detective work that typically punctuate classic whodunits. While the book does explore important questions about money, power and privilege, the stereotypical characters offer few fresh perspectives and do little to distract readers from the spottiness of the revenge drama. (Country-club staff members are variously described as having “café au lait” and “coconut-colored” skin, maids have heavy Russian accents, and the rebellious member of the revenge club is marked by her “white trash” tattoos.) Readers interested in a protagonist’s explorations of her town’s chilling undercurrent of corruption and violence will find Lauren Myracle’s Shine (2011) more rewarding.
The disappointingly predictable plot and characters fail to deliver on the novel’s promising opening scene . (Mystery. 14-17)Pub Date: July 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-61695-261-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Soho Teen
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
“Cinderella” but with genocide and rebel plots.
The daughter of a murdered queen plots to take back what is hers.
With her country seized and her mother, the Fire Queen of Astrea, murdered by invaders when she was only 6 years old, Theodosia has been a prisoner for 10 years, stripped of her crown, her people enslaved. Theo (renamed Thora by her captors) is at the mercy of the Kaiser—the fearsome ruler of the Kalovaxians—enduring his malicious whims in order to survive. But when the Kaiser forces Theo to execute her own father, survival is no longer good enough, and she finally takes up the mantle of queen to lead her people’s rise to resistance in a land saturated in elemental magic. Debut author Sebastian has invigorated some well-worn fantasy tropes (a displaced heir, an underground rebellion, and a love triangle that muddies the distinctions between enemies and allies), delivering a narrative that crackles with political intrigue, powerful and debilitating magic, and the violent mechanisms of colonization even as it leaves sequel-primed gaps. Some details—like Theo’s crisis of identity and Hamletian indecision—work well to submerge readers in a turbulent and enthralling plot; others, like racialized descriptions that fall short of actual representation (Atreans are dark-haired and olive-skinned, Kalovaxians are blond and pale-skinned) and the use of magic-induced madness for narrative shock and awe feel lazy and distracting among more nuanced elements.
“Cinderella” but with genocide and rebel plots. (Fantasy. 14-17)Pub Date: April 24, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5247-6706-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: April 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
Best leave it at maybe so.
Two 17-year-olds from the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, work together on a campaign for a progressive state senate candidate in an unlikely love story.
Co-authors Albertalli (Leah on the Offbeat, 2018, etc.) and Saeed (Bilal Cooks Daal, 2019, etc.) present Jamie Goldberg, a white Ashkenazi Jewish boy who suffers from being “painfully bad at anything girl-related,” and Maya Rehman, a Pakistani American Muslim girl struggling with her parents’ sudden separation. Former childhood best friends, they find themselves volunteered as a team by their mothers during a Ramadan “campaign iftar.” One canvassing adventure at a time, they grow closer despite Maya’s no-dating policy. Chapters alternate between Maya’s and Jamie’s first-person voices. The endearing, if somewhat clichéd, teens sweetly connect over similarities like divorced parents, and their activism will resonate with many. Jamie is sensitive, clumsy, and insecure; Maya is determined, sassy, a dash spoiled, and she swears freely. The novel covers timeless themes of teen activism and love-conquers-all along with election highs and lows, messy divorces, teen angst, bat mitzvah stress, social media gaffes, right-wing haters, friendship drama, and cultural misunderstandings, but the explicit advocacy at times interferes with an immersive reading experience and the text often feels repetitious. Maya’s mother is hijabi, and while Maya advocates against a hijab ban, she chooses not to wear hijab and actively wrestles with what it means to be an observant Muslim.
Best leave it at maybe so. (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-293704-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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