A fun, quick read that returns Disney fans to a world of characters they love.
Braswell (Once upon a Dream, 2016, etc.) picks up this epic fairy tale five years after Ariel and Eric lose to Ursula.
Imagine that Eric and Vanessa do get married: Ursula’s nautilus shell necklace never breaks, freeing Ariel’s voice, and since she cannot sing, Eric remains entranced by Vanessa. King Triton steps in for his daughter and becomes Ursula’s prisoner. Ariel returns, mute, to Atlantica to rule in his stead, believing her father to be dead. When Scuttle the sea gull gets a lead that King Triton is alive, Ariel returns to the surface in hopes of finding her father and restoring him to the throne. Nothing goes to plan, but with the help of her friends she attempts to put an end to Ursula’s evil plans. Ariel and Eric are still ridiculously moony-eyed over one another, and some details are somewhat far-fetched even for a fairy tale, but lyrical nods to the music in the movie as well as quippy dialogue (and the nostalgia factor) make this a magical read. The characters are fleshed out with more background, showing how their experiences have shaped them. With one minor exception, all characters are assumed white.
A fun, quick read that returns Disney fans to a world of characters they love. (Fiction. 13-18)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-01381-9
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Disney Press
Review Posted Online: June 23, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution.
A teenage girl finds herself alone after everyone else in her town mysteriously disappears, leaving her scrambling to figure out how to find them all.
One late summer day, everybody in July Fielding’s town disappears. She is left to piece together what happened, following a series of cryptic signs she finds around town urging her to “GET THEM BACK.” The narrative moves back and forth between July’s present and the events of the summer before, when her relationship with her best friend, cross-country team co-captain Sydney, starts to fracture due to a combination of jealousy over July’s new relationship with a cute boy called Sam and sweet up-and-coming freshman Ella’s threatening to overtake Syd’s status as star of the track team. The team members participate in a ritual in which they jump off a cliff into the rocky waters below at the end of their Friday practice runs. Though Ella is reluctant, Syd pressures her to jump. Short, frenetically paced sections move the story along quickly, and there is much foreshadowing pointing to something terrible that occurred at the end of that summer, which may be the key to July’s current predicament, but there is much misdirection too. Ultimately this is a story without enough setup to make the turn the book takes in the end feel fully developed or earned. All characters read white.
A high-concept premise that falls short in its execution. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327173
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Eerie and mysterious.
Sixteen-year-old orphaned twin sisters become embroiled with a coven of witches.
When the orphanage’s night matron attacks Ophelia and Serena, white-presenting twins “born on either side of midnight,” Serena’s previously untapped magical powers emerge. She sends a bolt of lightning hurtling toward the night matron. Ultimately the twins must be saved by two witches, who reveal that their adversary was a Dark Witch in disguise. Their rescuers—Sagittarius, who has tawny brown skin, jet black hair, and “almond eyes” and can conjure portals, and Leo, a pale-skinned redhead with the power of telekinesis—are part of a coven based on star signs, with new members born each year. The Twelve are duty-bound to kill Dark Witches. After they’re whisked away from the orphanage, the sisters are introduced to other members of the coven, each named for an astrological sign, including ebony-skinned Taurus, who’s their head witch. Ophelia and Serena are pressured to join as Pisces and Aries in order to help the group assemble the strongest force possible for their inevitable battle against the Dark Twelve, who are led by the world’s highest-ranked witch. This atmospheric, pulse-pounding fantasy of sisterhood and witchcraft initially seems like a classic tale of good versus evil but quickly becomes something much more ambiguous but no less chilling. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to differentiate among the large cast due to some of their personalities being underdeveloped.
Eerie and mysterious. (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Feb. 24, 2026
ISBN: 9780063339552
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
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