A superrich but neglected teen mourns his equally shy sister and decides to get revenge on the teens he blames for her death.
August knows his absent parents care more for their wealthy lifestyle than they do for their children. They supply him and Alexa with abundant cash, planting the teens in a wealthy community north of San Francisco and leaving them there. When Alexa drowns in a swimming pool, August dwells on the disrespect and injuries she suffered from their fellow high school students. He plans a party in an abandoned cannery and invites his victims. They will all participate in a scavenger hunt with individualized prizes. Innocent Robin inadvertently crashes the party, and Kyle doesn’t seem to belong there either. Events quickly go awry when teens start to disappear. Readers know they’ve been murdered, but the teens don’t realize that until later, with August swearing he didn’t do it—but the teens keep dying. Holder and Viguié keep the action churning along as they bounce from teen to teen for different perspectives on the action, sometimes recording a murder with appropriate gore, sometimes an escape. Many of the personalities tend toward stereotypes; the focus here is on thrills rather than on character development. Though there’s blood enough for horror, there’s nothing supernatural about it.
There aren’t clues enough to make this a mystery, but thriller fans should enjoy it. (Thriller. 12-18)Pub Date: June 23, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-385-74100-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: March 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT MYSTERY & THRILLER
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This hefty sequel to Six of Crows (2015) brings high-tension conclusions to the many intertwined intrigues of Ketterdam.
It's time for revenge—has been ever since old-before-his-time crook Kaz and his friends were double-crossed by the merchant princes of Ketterdam, an early-industrial Amsterdam-like fantasy city filled to the brim with crime and corruption. Disabled, infuriated, and perpetually scheming Kaz, the light-skinned teen mastermind, coordinates the efforts to rescue Inej. Though Kaz is loath to admit weakness, Inej is his, for he can't bear any harm come to the knife-wielding, brown-skinned Suli acrobat. Their team is rounded out by Wylan, a light-skinned chemist and musician whose merchant father tried to have him murdered and who can't read due to a print disability; Wylan's brown-skinned biracial boyfriend, Jesper, a flirtatious gambler with ADHD; Nina, the pale brunette Grisha witch and recovering addict from Russia-like Ravka; Matthias, Nina's national enemy and great love, a big, white, blond drüskelle warrior from the cold northern lands; and Kuwei, the rescued Shu boy everyone wants to kidnap. Can these kids rescue everyone who needs rescuing in Ketterdam's vile political swamp? This is dark and violent—one notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombs—but gut-wrenchingly genuine. Astonishingly, Bardugo keeps all these balls in the air over the 500-plus pages of narrative.
How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-62779-213-4
Page Count: 560
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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A must-read with a conclusion that will leave readers craving more.
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A monster spreads madness through the streets of Shanghai.
It is the autumn of 1926, and Shanghai is poised at the brink of transformation. Foreign powers have carved out portions of the city for themselves; what remains is divided between two feuding gangs, the Chinese Scarlet Gang and the Russian White Flowers. Eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai has returned home from New York City, wreathed in a reputation for ruthlessness and ready to step into her role as heir to the Scarlet Gang. Four years ago, a betrayal by the White Flowers heir, Roma Montagov, a young man of 19, led to the deaths of countless Scarlets, and Juliette is determined to avenge her gang. But when a lethal contagion strikes the city, targeting Scarlets and White Flowers alike, Juliette and Roma grudgingly agree to cooperate on an investigation in order to save their city. The slow-burning romance in this book takes a back seat to the gripping mystery grounded in immersive historical detail. Allusions to Romeo and Juliet are evident in names and specific scenes, but familiar themes of family, loyalty, and identity bear new significance in Gong’s inventive adaptation. Language is a tool wielded deftly by the multilingual characters, who switch easily among English, French, Shanghainese, Russian, and more, with Mandarin as the primary dialect for Chinese phrases. A strong supporting cast that includes a trans girl completes this striking debut.
A must-read with a conclusion that will leave readers craving more. (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-5769-0
Page Count: 464
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
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