A bold and bloody series opener.
Dark academia meets deadly magic competition in this thrilling fantasy romp that centers on complex Black Canadian characters.
Seventeen-year-old August Black is lost and lonely, especially now that her brother, Jules, is away at Kingston, Ontario’s Queen’s University. Their father, who has Trinidadian roots, has been working long hours, largely absent following their mother’s sudden disappearance. Depressed, August drinks and isolates herself. But after Jules goes missing too, leaving behind an alarming note (“Monsters are real”), August becomes determined to find him. She accepts an invitation from “hot librarian jock hybrid” Virgil Hawthorne, who witnesses her impressive knife-throwing skills, to join the secretive Learners’ Society, which offers her the opportunity to find answers about Jules. Its mission is to bond with and control people who have mutations that turn them into monsters. They’ll compete in a cutthroat monster-bonding competition that’s Virgil’s last chance to bond before transforming irrevocably into a monster and being locked away forever. August is a sympathetically flawed protagonist, whose journey from directionless loner to empowered champion is well-developed and compelling. As an outsider to the Learners’ Society, her perspective offers an accessible way for readers to learn the worldbuilding lore. Through the metaphor of monsters, Sambury explores salient questions about belonging, justice, mass incarceration, the line between revolution and terrorism, and racism and systemic inequality. The supporting cast is racially diverse.
A bold and bloody series opener. (author’s note, content warning, map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781665957366
Page Count: 592
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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
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