An entertaining, well-told love story/drama.
Complications arise in this YA novel when a brilliant teenage coder’s anonymous sex education blog goes viral and a friendship becomes romantic.
Amber Henderson is a senior at private Wilmont Academy—possibly “the last non-religious school on the planet still operating under the abstinence only policy.” Because plenty of kids are having sex anyway, they really need some good advice, such as how to obtain reliable birth control. Amber can rely on her sex-positive parents, but she’d love to help the less fortunate. She and Dean Winters vie for the title of the school’s most talented coder, so when he proposes a bet (for bragging rights and a deadmau5 T-shirt) to get under Principal Tanner’s skin via hacking, Amber has a perfect idea. She’ll set up an untraceable sex advice blog on the darknet, making sure everyone knows it’s written by a Wilmont student, and help information-starved students while riling Tanner. Though Amber and Dean are both hot as well as gifted and share much in common, she considers him out of her league; she’s also tormented by memories of a bad encounter with her ex-boyfriend. The coders’ growing relationship is put sorely to the test when Tanner blackmails Dean into uncovering who’s behind the increasingly popular blog. Lee (Love Beyond Opposites, 2018, etc.) sets up a classic confrontation between cool kids and an uptight administrator: They’re smart, funny, and gorgeous while he’s venal, underhanded, and vindictive. The point of view alternates between Amber and Dean, each voice distinctive but both capturing a true teenage feel. Their developing romance is sweet and sizzling, with a lot of sensitivity toward Amber’s fears. That Dean can’t figure out the identity of the advice-giver is somewhat contrived as an obstacle given that he and Amber are the only two members of the Code Club. Another tip-off is that Amber’s mother writes erotica and her father is a teen psychologist. The emotions can become melodramatically overwrought, and both main characters are altogether a bit too flawless, especially in looks. Still, it’s an engaging novel that nicely illuminates the coder subculture and deals honestly with teenage sexuality.
An entertaining, well-told love story/drama.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64063-658-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
In a sequel to the ebulliently inventive Howl's Moving Castle (1986), a wicked djinn (with the aid of his more benevolent brother, whom he's managed to enthrall) has captured more than a hundred princesses in the hope of wedding them all. Young Abdullah, a rug merchant enamored of one of them, discovers that his dreams and nightmares are being precipitately realized as he endeavors to rescue her. A strange merchant sold him the carpet, threadbare but magical, that first wafted him to "Flower-in-the-Night"; he is soon also equipped with a comically cranky genie that does its best to subvert Abdullah's attempts to get out of his increasingly elaborate predicaments with the use of his daily wish. The quest takes him from the deserts near his native "Zanzib" to Britain-like Ingary (see Howl) and thence to the sky-high Castle, now considerably inflated by the djinns who are keeping the princesses there. True to form, Jones provides delicious personalities even for the carpet (it's lazy but susceptible to flattery), and slips in some double identities that should surprise even fans familiar with her bottomless bag of tricks. This hasn't quite the intellectual pyrotechnics of The Lives of Christopher Chant (1988), or as many wheels within thematic wheels; it will stand alone, but is even more fun if the familiar characters (who do finally turn up) are already known. A bewitching romp, gratifying to mind, imagination, and funny bone.
Pub Date: April 26, 1991
ISBN: 0-688-09686-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2000
In the primeval forest there is a prophecy: a fawn born with an oak-leaf mark on his forehead will change the future of the Herne (as the deer are called). This augury is the keystone of first-time novelist Clement-Davies’s sweeping animal fantasy. Rannoch is the hunted and hidden fawn who must find his destiny. His father and the entire legion of Outrider bucks have been betrayed and slain by Drail, the Lord of the Herds and his followers. Rannoch is fostered among strangers, only to be hunted first by the Drail’s Nazi-like legions and then by the Machiavellian Sgorr and his minion. Tutored by the others of the animal kingdom, rescued by man, surviving many close calls on his journey, Rannoch faces his ambivalence and fear to lead the deer from their bondage. This vividly told story is not for the faint of heart: dreadful predictions, holocaust-like massacres, and ritual killings pervade this tale. Imaginatively placed in the wilds of ancient Britain, the obviousness of the allegory, with Rannoch as a Christ-like figure may make some readers cringe and others fill with ominous dismay, as it seems the story rushes to an unmistakable conclusion. Jaded readers of the genre will be surprised and relieved as the narrative veers off into the unexpected. A hurtling ride. (Fiction. 12+)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-525-46492-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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