An exciting adventure about a girl in STEM undercut by limited character development.
When Kira, a brilliant but misunderstood teenager, wins a prestigious international award for her research paper on dragonfly cognition, she is whisked off to a lavish conference in Stockholm, Sweden.
At the time, Kira’s only concern is claiming the prize money needed to pay off her ailing mother’s debts after her father's death. Instead, her world collides with those of several mysterious and powerful men intent on harnessing her knowledge for their own dubious agendas. Suddenly, she finds herself sucked into the orbit of international scientist-spies working to exploit her accidental discoveries as a means to cure death. As she falls deeper into a winding maze filled with lab rats, a science prodigy, and menacing Russian operatives, Kira discovers that knowledge can be a dangerous business. Her research takes her from Northern California to Stockholm to Siberia to Moscow as she struggles to remain two steps ahead of her many pursuers. She doesn’t just need to perfect a way to raise the dead, she needs to find a way to stay alive. Although Kira struggles financially, readers learn very little else about her. While the fast pace and high stakes are engaging, the book tackles too many storylines without interrogating the identity or interiority of the characters. Most characters default to White, but naming conventions imply some racial or ethnic diversity.
An exciting adventure about a girl in STEM undercut by limited character development. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-299586-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
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
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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