A concise, bold crime tale that, even in its darkest moments, shines with brilliance.
In this thriller, a missing teen reappears with amnesia and uncovers a host of parlous secrets buried in her gradually returning memory.
When Californian Rachel Evans wakes up in a ditch, it’s been two weeks since she inexplicably disappeared. But Rachel can’t remember the last year of her life. She hardly recognizes herself, surprised by her Goth style and the fact that Dylan McCarthy, the guy she’s been crushing on for years, is apparently her boyfriend. Rachel attracts the attention of FBI agent Ryan Bennet, investigating missing girls who also vanished after school but, unlike Rachel, never came back. Filling in her memory gaps isn’t easy; Rachel gets intermittent flashes, but her so-called friends, including head cheerleader Lauren Maxwell, are reluctant to provide her with specifics. One thing’s for sure: her preference of handling a confrontation with her fists rather than talking it out feels like a fairly new trait. Rachel knows she’s onto something when she finds a list she’d generated of girls’ names and addresses, at least one from Bennet’s case. Following the lead will take Rachel into a seedy underground world that she’s slowly starting to remember. There are individuals, however, who want to keep this world hidden. They have already gone to great lengths—and will again—to ensure it stays that way. Destefano (Fathom, 2012, etc.) sets a near-perfect tempo for her narrative. Rather than saving a hefty twist for the end, she systematically reveals pieces of a mystery as the story progresses. It’s an apt teen drama as well, with the 17-year-old having to mend her friendship with Molly McFadden, whom Rachel, as far as she can tell, abandoned for the popular crowd. Rachel, though, is indelible, favoring commiseration over self-pity—sympathizing with younger brother Kyle’s pain for his then-missing sister. Readers will likely notice a passing resemblance to a well-known novel (divulging its title would be a spoiler), but Destefano doesn’t rehash the plot, opting to reinterpret it for a markedly different protagonist. The payoff isn’t quite as dynamic as its buildup, but the ending more than satisfies, allowing both the book to stand on its own and create potential for a continuation or spinoff.
A concise, bold crime tale that, even in its darkest moments, shines with brilliance.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-63375-605-2
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes...
In a riveting novel from Myers (At Her Majesty’s Request, 1999, etc.), a teenager who dreams of being a filmmaker writes the story of his trial for felony murder in the form of a movie script, with journal entries after each day’s action.
Steve is accused of being an accomplice in the robbery and murder of a drug store owner. As he goes through his trial, returning each night to a prison where most nights he can hear other inmates being beaten and raped, he reviews the events leading to this point in his life. Although Steve is eventually acquitted, Myers leaves it up to readers to decide for themselves on his protagonist’s guilt or innocence.
The format of this taut and moving drama forcefully regulates the pacing; breathless, edge-of-the-seat courtroom scenes written entirely in dialogue alternate with thoughtful, introspective journal entries that offer a sense of Steve’s terror and confusion, and that deftly demonstrate Myers’s point: the road from innocence to trouble is comprised of small, almost invisible steps, each involving an experience in which a “positive moral decision” was not made. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 31, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-028077-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1999
PERSPECTIVES
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
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