A laudable message about the importance of scientific knowledge, but as a tale it fails to enchant.
The chosen one of a fantasy realm struggles to adjust to his old life in bestselling author Chen’s YA debut.
Several months ago, Andy Lao, the son of Taiwanese immigrants living in Palo Alto, California, was transported to the Realm of Garriod, became its chosen one, defeated the Chaos Demon, and returned home to junior year at his old high school. Andy misses mana, the glowing blue substance that imparts magical power in Garriod, and Rich, his nonbinary, white-presenting best friend, who’s off at college in Boston. When Andy returns to the spot where he found the portal to Garriod, he finds mana spawning in the mundane world. Eventually another portal opens and another chosen one emerges—and tries to kill him. Julia, who’s Black, says that she’s Garriod’s chosen one. She knows of Andy from the legend of “Andilow the Destroyer…the bringer of chaos. The usurper of magic.” These days, mana in Garriod is unstable and extremely dangerous. Julia abandons her mission to kill Andy, and guided by Rich, they study the mana they possess to understand why it’s decaying. While readers may be intrigued by Garriod and its LARP-adjacent society, little of the narrative takes place there. Slow pacing, heavy-handed dialogue, and elementary school–level science experiments unfortunately make the story feel more like a public service announcement than a fantasy adventure.
A laudable message about the importance of scientific knowledge, but as a tale it fails to enchant. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9798894141121
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Running Press Kids
Review Posted Online: June 1, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce.
Houck kicks off a new story arc in the world of the Tiger’s Curse series with new tigers who live in a northerly setting.
The death of their widowed royal mother touches off a crisis in the Kievian Empire; neither Stacia nor Verusha Stepanov, 17-year-old sword-wielding twin sisters, wants to be named tsarina. But questions of succession get put on hold when a battle with a sorcerer inexplicably turns the two into nonspeaking Siberian tigers. Hints of a cure send them, along with a growing entourage of men to provide assistance (and, perforce, do all the talking), on a long trek. Though most of the cast sticks to genre type, Houck throws in a wild card in the form of hunky, inarticulate Nikolai, who joins the quest because he is enthralled by Verusha—and who also killed his whole family in an act of revenge. Occasional anachronistic dialogue (e.g., “Are you ready, ladies?”) disrupts the tale’s generally earnest tone, as do the clumsy attempts at banter. A third tiger, snarky and blind but conveniently able to see through others’ eyes, trots in late in the story. The events in this setup volume unfold with many a flashback and change in point of view and head toward no sort of resolution—only the cave-dwelling White Shaman of the Tundra’s advice that further journeys are in the offing. The central cast in this Russian-inspired fantasy world presents white; the Indigenous population includes nomadic reindeer herders.
Returning fans, anyway, will pounce. (Fantasy. 13-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9798212221696
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Blackstone
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story.
Is an exuberant extended family the cure for a breakup? Sophie is about to find out.
When Sophie unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend, she isn’t thrilled about spending the holidays at her grandparents’ house instead of with him. And when her grandmother forms a plan to distract Sophie from her broken heart—10 blind dates, each set up by different family members—she’s even less thrilled. Everyone gets involved with the matchmaking, even forming a betting pool on the success of each date. But will Sophie really find someone to fill the space left by her ex? Will her ex get wind of Sophie’s dating spree via social media and want them to get back together? Is that what she even wants anymore? This is a fun story of finding love, getting to know yourself, and getting to know your family. The pace is quick and light, though the characters are fairly shallow and occasionally feel interchangeable, especially with so many names involved. A Christmas tale, the plot is a fast-paced series of dinners, parties, and games, relayed in both narrative form and via texts, though the humor occasionally feels stiff and overwrought. The ending is satisfying, though largely unsurprising. Most characters default to white as members of Sophie’s Italian American extended family, although one of her cousins has a Filipina mother. One uncle is gay.
An enjoyable, if predictable, romantic holiday story. (Fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-368-02749-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019
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