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THE MIDNIGHT LIE

From the Forgotten Gods series , Vol. 1

Lush, swoony, painful, enraging, and as cathartic as a good cry.

Memory and illusion, truth and lies—all paths lead to heartbreak in this first of a fantasy duology.

“It is as it is.” That’s always the response in isolated Herrath when anyone questions the oppressive caste system. Once that was enough for Nirrim, who is plagued by visions of a different past; but after meeting the cocky, nosy, and confusingly attractive traveler Sid, Nirrim discovers how dangerous it can be to want. Set some 20 years later in the same world as Rutkoski’s acclaimed The Winner’s Trilogy, the baroque (almost purple) prose begins in medias res, which Nirrim’s naively unreliable narration does little to clarify. Although clever and kind, her passivity and desperate neediness make brown-skinned, green-eyed Nirrim an atypical YA heroine. While fans of the earlier books will easily guess her secrets, dark-eyed, fair-haired Sid presents at first as careless, arrogant, and as confident in her sexuality as Nirrim is shocked by Sid’s attraction to other women. But this facade eventually proves to be another “midnight lie”: a truth intended to mislead. When their almost instantaneous mutual desire develops quickly into a prickly friendship and (discreetly) consummated romance, both acknowledge it cannot last. Yet the relationship’s development—combined with the genuinely shocking revelation of Herrath’s history—leads Nirrim to a horrific choice…one that will leave readers clamoring for the next entry.

Lush, swoony, painful, enraging, and as cathartic as a good cry. (Fantasy. 14-18)

Pub Date: March 3, 2020

ISBN: 978-0-374-30638-0

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Dec. 15, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020

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HOUSE OF SALT AND SORROWS

From the Sisters of the Salt series , Vol. 1

More about costume than character or story.

Mysterious deaths plague an island dukedom in a loose retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.”

Annaleigh Thaumas has spent the last few years mourning her mother and several sisters, who died in succession under increasingly eerie circumstances. Her remaining sisters chafe under the lifestyle restrictions of formal mourning on their small, isolated island home, especially their inability to wear pretty clothes and flirt with boys. When their young stepmother persuades their duke father to let them wear bright colors and start dancing again, Annaleigh and her sisters are relieved, especially when a mystical door in the family crypt conveniently transports them to glamorous ballrooms that provide venues to show off their new wardrobes. Annaleigh and her sisters read like interchangeable paper dolls, their painstakingly described gowns, jewels, and shoes the most distinguishing features about them; they spend their time screaming, swooning, and alternately competing for and cowering behind the men in their lives. The island setting is extremely one-note, as if an ocean-themed children’s party became an entire culture, and there is no consistent interior logic to the rules of magic and gods that seem to shift, like the tides and the weather, according to narrative convenience. The writing is self-consciously stiff, and the story reads like a mood board, full of repetitively atmospheric images and scenes but never creating a substantive whole. All characters are white.

More about costume than character or story. (Fairy tale retelling. 14-18)

Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-9848-3192-7

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Delacorte

Review Posted Online: May 5, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019

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THE HIVE

Energetic but at times heavy-handed, this dystopian tale seems destined for a screen adaptation.

Trial and punishment are carried out via a social media process called the Hive in this futuristic thriller created by a team that includes an actress, a film producer, and two writers.

The daughter of a famous hacker, high school senior Cassie is still grieving her dad’s recent death. Her mother, a classics professor named Rachel, is struggling both to make ends meet and with the ongoing presence of National Security Agency agents who keep nosing around her late husband’s doings. Alternating between Cassie’s and her mother’s third-person narration, the difficult relationship between the pair provides a believable emotional backbone for this high-concept, fast-paced, sometimes overly detailed cautionary tale of the morally fraught territory that results when technology and mob mentality mix. After Cassie makes a tasteless joke online about the new grandchild of the president (a figure who is so obviously Trump that the pretense of his name being fictionalized seems pointless), she must flee the ensuing violent wrath of the Hive, discovering its secrets along the way. Readers may be frustrated by the intelligent and sarcastic Cassie’s apparent inability to identify people who are clearly likely to betray her. Cassie is biracial—her mother is white, and her dad was black—and the secondary characters are realistically diverse.

Energetic but at times heavy-handed, this dystopian tale seems destined for a screen adaptation. (Science fiction. 14-18)

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-5253-0060-8

Page Count: 416

Publisher: Kids Can

Review Posted Online: June 9, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019

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