A whimsical food concept brought vividly to life.
A boy from a society where only sweets are eaten journeys to far-off lands of vegetable and fruit consumption in this illustrated middle-grade fantasy.
Ten-year-old Henry lives in Choco-Locoville, a town in Sugarland. Like all the inhabitants of Sugarland, Henry is overweight. Since his father’s death (brought on by obesity), Henry has tried to diet, but with only sweet things to eat, he finds it impossible. Henry is also lonely. His mother works long hours overseeing the family’s chocolate factory, and Henry’s only friend is his fat cat, Tiger. Disaster strikes one day when Sugarland’s chocolate clouds are stolen. These are essential for the running of the chocolate factory, and, seeing an opportunity to recapture his mom’s attention, Henry resolves to bring them back. Along with Tiger, Henry strikes out for the Monster Mountains and, beyond these, the mythical lands of Veggington, Fruitopolis, and Barebone Island, which features dairy products. In Veggington, Henry eats vegetables for the first time and makes a new friend—a carrot girl named Carrotina, who joins him on his quest. Henry’s journey helps him to lose weight, but even with Carrotina’s help, will he be able to find the missing chocolate clouds and break down the national boundaries between food groups? Remus writes in the third person, past tense, from Henry’s point of view. The prose is a simple mix of narrative, dialogue, and description, enhanced throughout by the author’s partial and full-page illustrations. These pictures—textured black-and-white sketches of considerable intricacy—contribute greatly to Remus’ worldbuilding and to the depictions of Henry, Carrotina, Tiger, and others. Henry is a likable protagonist, conscious of his own shortcomings but determined to overcome them. Carrotina is a particularly memorable character. She is kind and companionable but also acutely aware of being a sentient, anthropomorphized vegetable. Her perspective on life encapsulates the magical suspension of disbelief that underpins the four food-based lands of Foodtopia. The story itself is sweet and nonthreatening, although Henry’s quest is not without peril. While adult readers may find the plot predictable, there are surprises on a page-by-page level and wonder aplenty for the target audience. The moral, likewise, is overt but not intrusive. Younger readers will be thoroughly entertained.
A whimsical food concept brought vividly to life.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-3-949488-01-6
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Misty Moon Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.
When Vis is copied into two other realities, he must stop a god from repeatedly culling almost everyone back home.
Thousands of years ago, to prevent the Concurrence from enslaving everyone, the world was split into three near-identical copies: Res, Obiteum, and Luceum. To exist in all three worlds, to wield Will there, is to achieve synchronism. After the events in The Will of the Many (2023), which cost Vis his arm and the life of his friend, Vis achieves Synchronism. While Res-Vis must continue to play Hierarchy politics to find his friend’s killer, Obiteum-Vis finds a ruined world, where the dead are reanimated and used by Ka, the Concurrence, and the only other person to exist in synchronism. Meanwhile, Luceum-Vis is forced into a dispute between druids, their High Council, and their kings—with one king intent on killing him—and Vis has no idea why. On all worlds, Vis is as shrewd as ever, weighing his options, planning ahead, and doing what he must to survive. However, he, too, slowly diverges, doing things he swore he never would: cede his Will, use Will to control someone else, and reveal his true name. If at least one Vis cannot use his synchronism and power of Will to kill the Concurrence, no Vis will be safe, and another Cataclysm will cull those he loves on Res. Book Two of the Hierarchy series is a speculative fantasy that is at once Egyptian post-apocalyptic, Celtic medieval, and Roman dystopian, thanks to the multidimensional setting. Although the sprawling narrative at times overextends itself, Islington rewards patient readers with a compelling story, a cast of complex and diverse characters, and a glimpse into how far a good man can go before he’s lost. A symbol at the start of each chapter delineates which world and Vis it’s about. Readers should read The Will of the Many before attempting this volume, or they may be confused for the first several chapters and beyond.
A unique concept that promises readers will find at least one, if not three, entwined but different narratives to enjoy.Pub Date: Nov. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781982141233
Page Count: 736
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.
Using mystery and romance elements in a nonlinear narrative, SenLinYu’s debut is a doorstopper of a fantasy that follows a woman with missing memories as she navigates through a war-torn realm in search of herself.
Helena Marino is a talented young healer living in Paladia—the “Shining City”—who has been thrust into a brutal war against an all-powerful necromancer and his army of Undying, loyal henchmen with immortal bodies, and necrothralls, reanimated automatons. When Helena is awakened from stasis, a prisoner of the necromancer’s forces, she has no idea how long she has been incarcerated—or the status of the war. She soon finds herself a personal prisoner of Kaine Ferron, the High Necromancer’s “monster” psychopath who has sadistically killed hundreds for his master. Ordered to recover Helena’s buried memories by any means necessary, the two polar opposites—Helena and Kaine, healer and killer—end up discovering much more as they begin to understand each other through shared trauma. While necromancy is an oft-trod subject in fantasy novels, the author gives it a fresh feel—in large part because of their superb worldbuilding coupled with unforgettable imagery throughout: “[The necromancer] lay reclined upon a throne of bodies. Necrothralls, contorted and twisted together, their limbs transmuted and fused into a chair, moving in synchrony, rising and falling as they breathed in tandem, squeezing and releasing around him…[He] extended his decrepit right hand, overlarge with fingers jointed like spider legs.” Another noteworthy element is the complex dynamic between Helena and Kaine. To say that these two characters shared the gamut of intense emotions would be a vast understatement. Readers will come for the fantasy and stay for the romance.
Although the melodrama sometimes is a bit much, the superb worldbuilding and intricate plotline make this a must-read.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9780593972700
Page Count: 1040
Publisher: Del Rey
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
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