Roll the die, flip the card: We have a winner.
Seven teens are chosen for a mysterious internship with the Louisiana Veda Foundation, investigating the remnants of board-game empire Darkly and its enigmatic founder.
Arcadia Gannon, 17, who presents white, comes from Eminence, Missouri, is bad at school but good at puzzles, runs her mother’s antiques shop, loves Darkly games, and knows as much as anyone can about Louisiana Veda, the long-dead mastermind behind their (impossible, often terrifying) games. The internship involves being marooned—along with Poe from France, Franz-Luc from Germany, Cooper from the U.S., Torin from Ireland, Everleigh from Iceland, and Mouse from Nigeria—on the island off the coast of England where the Darkly factory is located. They’re tasked with finding a missing boy, who disappeared while playing a never-released game, the sole copy of which was stolen years earlier. The prize: £1,000,000 and complete ownership of a Darkly game of their choice. What follows is a treasure hunt, a mystery both present and past, a sometimes-terrifying adventure, and, for Dia, a coming into her own after a life of being overshadowed by a flighty mother whom she’s had to parent. Like a Darkly game, the whole is mesmerizing, improbable, deeply compelling, and best enjoyed after dark. Pessl’s impeccably controlled prose plays with ideas about presentation and storytelling on a meta level even as Dia grapples with the same ideas (as well as the concepts of destiny and determination) in Veda’s life and her own.
Roll the die, flip the card: We have a winner. (Mystery. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593706558
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2024
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
A gripping tribute to resilience.
A girl with amnesia and a boy suspected of harming his girlfriend overcome adversity to find the answers they seek.
A 17-year-old girl wakes up in a ditch, disoriented and with no memory of who she is or what happened. Found by the Alton, Oregon, police, she is brought to the station. Soon after, Wayne Boone, a man claiming to be her father, shows up. He has photos of her on his phone and her high school ID card, with the name Mary Boone. Wayne convinces the police to release Mary into his custody. The more time Mary spends with Wayne, however, the weirder things get: He’s unaware of her food allergy, and as her memories start to return, they don’t conform with Wayne’s versions of her life. In the town of Washington City, across the Willamette River, Drew is in a bad place. His girlfriend, Lola, has disappeared, and Drew was the last person to see her. His adoptive dads and cousin are the only ones who support him; everyone else, including the sheriff, thinks he’s responsible for Lola’s disappearance. Intent on finding Lola, Drew finds help in an unlikely ally, Lola’s best friend, Autumn, who is the sheriff’s daughter. But will they find Lola in time? The two immersive storylines bring to life the trials and frustrations each main character faces in this debut, which is a thrilling delight right up to the unexpected and bittersweet conclusion. Most characters are cued white; one of Drew’s dads is Guatemalan.
A gripping tribute to resilience. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781728270111
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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