Ambitious and refreshing; readers will want to settle in for the long con.
A con artist summons her old crew for their trickiest heist yet: stealing her brother’s soul back from hell.
Elysia “Elle” Fields lives in a world where it’s possible to visit the Afterlife and return with magic to the land of the living. One thing it’s not possible to retrieve, however, is a dead person’s soul. When Elle is approached by Rook Crawford, who wants her to resurrect his sister, she finds the perfect excuse to covertly continue her quest to bring her deceased brother, Dante, back. To accomplish this, Elle, who reads white, reconstructs her team, who scattered after Dante’s death—runic witch Poppy Champagne, who’s Black; nonbinary “designated muscle-slash-wheelman” CJ, who presents white; and alchemist Tolliver Takao, who’s cued Japanese American—plus the New Guy, Argentinian pickpocket Ezra Cardoso, who’s cued as a Sephardic Jew. Their mission is to steal and translate the Voynich manuscript, a codex written in a language no one’s been able to crack, before taking a soul from Tartarus (“the lowest level of the Afterlife”) and dodging mafialike syndicates that have become too interested in their activities, while ensuring they aren’t being conned themselves. Elle is a darkly funny narrator who’s comfortable in the morally gray areas she inhabits. The worldbuilding is original and revealed naturally through exposition as it becomes relevant to the cons Elle and her crew run.
Ambitious and refreshing; readers will want to settle in for the long con. (Afterlife magic guide) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: July 28, 2026
ISBN: 9780593856529
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away.
A Mexican American boy takes on heavy responsibilities when his family is torn apart.
Mateo’s life is turned upside down the day U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up unsuccessfully seeking his Pa at his New York City bodega. The Garcias live in fear until the day both parents are picked up; his Pa is taken to jail and his Ma to a detention center. The adults around Mateo offer support to him and his 7-year-old sister, Sophie, however, he knows he is now responsible for caring for her and the bodega as well as trying to survive junior year—that is, if he wants to fulfill his dream to enter the drama program at the Tisch School of the Arts and become an actor. Mateo’s relationships with his friends Kimmie and Adam (a potential love interest) also suffer repercussions as he keeps his situation a secret. Kimmie is half Korean (her other half is unspecified) and Adam is Italian American; Mateo feels disconnected from them, less American, and with worries they can’t understand. He talks himself out of choosing a safer course of action, a decision that deepens the story. Mateo’s self-awareness and inner monologue at times make him seem older than 16, and, with significant turmoil in the main plot, some side elements feel underdeveloped. Aleman’s narrative joins the ranks of heart-wrenching stories of migrant families who have been separated.
An ode to the children of migrants who have been taken away. (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7595-5605-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 22, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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