Their journey is first derailed by a car crash, and then Connor gets hijacked along the way by a local yokel in Heartsdale,...
The third book of Shusterman’s best-selling series finds legendary “Akron AWOL” Connor and former tithe Lev making their way across the country to Ohio to find a woman who may be able to help them stop the Unwinding forever.
Their journey is first derailed by a car crash, and then Connor gets hijacked along the way by a local yokel in Heartsdale, Kan., who holds him hostage. He escapes, but a second car crash dozens of pages later lands Lev in the infirmary of a Native American reservation. Meanwhile, clappers—human bombs—destroy gyms; Cam, the Rewind, charms a senator’s daughter; Risa escapes a band of hungry coyotes; and several other characters from the previous two novels enter and exit the stage. At first, it’s hard to tell where Shusterman is leading readers. He spends so much time with side stories that the novel has trouble finding the momentum of the first two. Readers won’t really understand the lead plot arc until they’re at least halfway through; this installment reads like multiple subplots cobbled together. They do eventually connect, and readers will enjoy the temporary distraction of each one, but they’ll still be wanting Shusterman to get the heck on with the story. A meandering, stop-and-start continuation of the Unwind Dystology. (Science fiction. 13 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4424-2369-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre (King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger; being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Lush watercolors move with fluid lines throughout this reimagining. The artist’s use of color is especially striking: His battle scenes are ample, bloodily scarlet affairs, and Polyphemus’s cave is a stifling orange; he depicts the underworld as a colorless, mirthless void, domestic spaces in warm tans, the all-encircling sea in a light Mediterranean blue and some of the far-away islands in almost tangibly growing greens. Don’t confuse this hefty, respectful adaptation with some of the other recent ones; this one holds nothing back and is proudly, grittily realistic rather than cheerfully cartoonish. Big, bold, beautiful. (notes) (Graphic classic. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7636-4266-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
A complex and riveting tapestry.
Three lives unexpectedly collide when ruthless gods set them on a course to complete dangerous missions.
Brown-eyed, dark-haired Artair is one of the Sleepless, a monk whose body is occupied by the Other nightly. Black-haired Lucian Prideson, who has skin “the color of cream,” awakens in Artair’s body while the monk sleeps, but his own past remains a mystery. Unsure who he is or why his soul occupies another’s body, Lucian begins to sense a change coming, one that could release him from his captivity. When a mage to the Bloody Claw, a violent god, demands that Artair retrieve a monster from the Jih Forest, which is located in a land controlled by the Queen of Serpents, the monk is forced out of the safety of the monastery and into a world of monsters, both human and otherwise. Elver, a human orphan sacrificed to the Bloody Claw, has been transformed into a monster with poisonous skin by the Queen of Serpents and made to guard the Jih Forest. Ordered to rescue the jih monster that Artair has abducted, Elver, who’s “alarmingly pale,” with white hair and yellow eyes, must leave her familiar forest and reluctantly reacquaint herself with humans. Elver, Artair, and Lucian navigate complicated relationships as their paths entwine. In this duology opener, award-winner Williams’ rich worldbuilding supports an action-packed fantasy that features original character dynamics and a thoughtful exploration of themes of invisible prisons, lost identity, and belonging.
A complex and riveting tapestry. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9781250409256
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
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