Flashes of inspiration light up a protagonist with plenty of spine, a plot too dependent on set pieces and a colorful but...
Larson weaves a patchwork mix of trite and truly excellent ideas into this chronicle of a young fugitive’s first year at princess school.
Having neither name nor past and first met racing through an enchanted forest clad only in spider webs, “Cadet Eleven” (Evie for short) finds herself enrolled in a school for combat princesses after rescuing hunky prince Remington from a witch’s cage. Under the tutelage of a tiny but fierce Fairy Drillsergeant and other faculty, she learns how to fight witches with “Courage, Compassion, Kindness, and Discipline,” along with ball-gown tailoring and other princessly skills. Meanwhile Remington and the other young men (except for one, who enrolls with the princesses because he was raised as the designated girl in a family of 22 boys) are in the school’s other wing training to be dragon-killing knights. Romance ensues, as do sharp conflicts when Evie, whose past is illuminated bit by bit in arbitrarily timed visions and revelations, turns out to have been lovingly raised, though not by humans. By the end, Evie has won her way past tests and rivalries, fought several witches (scary ones, too), and caught hints of both her human parentage and a promising destiny among such warrior greats as Cinderella and Snow White.
Flashes of inspiration light up a protagonist with plenty of spine, a plot too dependent on set pieces and a colorful but quickly sketched supporting cast. A sequel-worthy debut nonetheless. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-16324-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Prophesied savior meets eco-thriller in this too-long apocalyptic adventure. Thirteen-year-old Eli is destined for a cushy job at InfiniCorp, his grandfather’s company; all-powerful InfiniCorp runs the domed cities that house the remainder of human civilization. From the Department of Painless Dentistry to the Department of Cool and Comfortable Air, InfiniCorp reassures the citizens that it’s taking care of everything. Eli bucks the system and his own family’s trust by questioning the glitches he witnesses in the dome. It’s not long before he’s roped in to the plots of the Outsiders, barbarians who inhabit the hellish desert outside the domes. Eli’s adventure occasionally descends to proselytizing, with wise mentors explaining the dangers of climate change and consumerism. As homily it fails: Why learn about climate change if salvation lies in a predestined child of privilege leading the suffering masses to the Wild Orange Yonder? Nonetheless, there’s enough excitement in this story of gadgets and intelligent animal sidekicks (Eli’s pet mongoose, Marilyn, communicates with him telepathically) to keep readers turning pages—though possibly not enough to make them seek out volume two. (Science fiction. 12-13)
Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-385-73708-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010
This sequel to Malice (2009) draws the rival casts of evil monsters and teenage rebels into climactic battles both in this world and the parallel one behind the pages of a comic. As Seth makes his way back into Malice with the talismanic Shard and joins the effort to mount an attack on the dread Deadhouse, a new ally, Alicia, nervously tracks the House’s sinister master Tall Jake to the decrepit English psychiatric hospital where Grendel—the mad, disturbed, misshapen graphic artist (and maybe god?) who has created both the comic and the world it depicts—is imprisoned. Like the opener, this features expertly meshed multiple plotlines, colorful supporting characters (notably a clockwork sabertooth and a Malice resident afflicted with “regenerative leprosy,” meaning that he keeps losing body parts that then grow back), frequent eerie skitterings and sudden feelings of dread plus nonstop action that breaks, occasionally, from prose into graphic-novel–style panels festooned with noisy sound effects. A real crowd pleaser, with further episodes possible but not necessary. (Graphic hybrid/fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-16045-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
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