A slow but richly atmospheric read.
Lonely Lena Mattacascar heads to the border to find a father she barely remembers and an answer to her unusual appearance.
Armed with a letter and money from her absent father, 18-year-old Lena leaves her dour mother and grandmother and takes the train toward Scree—wilderness, penal colony and rumored reservation for Peculiars, humanoid creatures with tell-tale abnormalities. Cursed with elongated fingers and feet, Lena both fears that she may be a Peculiar and hopes that she may find acceptance in Scree. Obstacles plague Lena’s journey, and she is soon stranded in the faded seaside town of Knob Knoster. While seeking a guide and more money for her expedition, she finds herself working at Mr. Beasley’s steampunk-esque Zephyr House alongside the endearingly earnest librarian Jimson Quiggley, on a secret mission from the charismatic blackmailer Marshal Saltre. Set in a vaguely Victorian world, Gothic elements permeate the story: a mysterious house, an abundance of secrets, odd servants and competing romantic figures, though Lena’s shame over her abnormalities alienates her from both Saltre and Quigley. The sporadic action scenes feel artificial, but the ambiguity surrounding the existence of Peculiars and the origin of their physical deformities—magic? genetics?—is thought-provoking.
A slow but richly atmospheric read. (Steampunk. 12 & up)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4197-0178-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: March 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
This is a funny book, chock full of action, slapstick, puns and eccentrics. Fans of the first two will eat it up.
This mystery/adventure, third in the series, begins in Vancouver, Canada, then takes a side trip to Paris, leaving a trail of amusement and mayhem.
On his 15th birthday, Neil Flambé is re-opening his restaurant, Chez Flambé, when a curse that has beset generations of Flambés sets in, initiating mayhem. This action-packed story includes poisoning, explosions, booby-trapped kitchen equipment and other unpleasant events aimed at ruining Neil’s reputation. Mysterious happenings include the appearance of an old family cookbook, a vanquished adversary demanding a second cooking duel and the discovery that a neighboring restaurant is occupied only by a motion sensor and hundreds of rats. Attempting to discover the origin of the sabotage and solve multiple mysteries, Neil is joined by his cousin, friends and well-meaning colleagues who are developed just enough to propel the story forward but whose names are often hilarious. Although this book can stand on its own, readers are advised to read the series in order.
This is a funny book, chock full of action, slapstick, puns and eccentrics. Fans of the first two will eat it up. (Mystery. 12-14)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-4286-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
This bland techno-thriller has plenty of action but not quite enough style.
A teenage hacktivist and her online comrades encounter danger and betrayal when they begin investigating a fashion mogul’s business operations in Hong Kong.
Lian leads a double life. Offline, she is her parents’ “Little Panda,” the studious, obedient daughter of an affluent family; online, she is Komiko, a trusted member of 06/04, a pseudonymous group of hackers dedicated to exposing government and corporate wrongdoing. Her two worlds collide with a vengeance after a corpse washes up on Big Wave Bay Beach, as Lian soon stumbles upon a link between the dead girl and one of her father’s business partners, Rand Harrison. Her situation becomes even more complicated when Harrison’s smarmy son, Matt, transfers into her school, where their paths cross regularly. Lian’s readiness to risk her own safety to secure evidence of Harrison’s crimes makes for a fast-paced story, marked by narrow escapes and high-speed chases. Alas, the technological action fizzles in comparison, as Lian’s elite hacker research appears to consist mostly of basic Web searches. In addition, the novel’s Hong Kong feels more like a movie set than a lived-in city, and it doesn’t help that even the non-American characters often speak colloquially American dialogue.
This bland techno-thriller has plenty of action but not quite enough style. (Thriller. 13-18)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62324-023-3
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Scarlet Voyage/Enslow
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2013
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