Wrenching, dark, and powerful—no fluke, considering its model.
An ancient war draws to a climax as a vengeful—and literally hard-nosed—sea captain seeks out a demonic killer.
Ness (Release, 2017, etc.) mines Moby Dick for incidents and motifs, pitting men against whales in a futuristic alternate world. Along with telling the tale from a young whale’s point of view, he reverses the usual orientation of the universe so that cetacean crews go down to meet their enemies at the threshold where oceans give way to the deep, unknowable Abyss of air. In a conflict that has raged for millennia, both sides wield harpoons and store their savagely dismembered opponents in wooden hulls for transport. Having seen her own mother ambushed and torn to pieces, Bathsheba eagerly joins Capt. Alexandra, who bears the stub of a harpoon in her head, in ramming ships to splinters. But the reflective narrator catches profound glimpses of how destructive implacable mutual hatred can be to both body and soul as her captain’s obsessive search for the white ship of the universally feared Toby Wick leads through massacres and chancy encounters to a melodramatic confrontation. The story, though far shorter than its progenitor, conjures similar allegorical weight by pairing the narrative’s rolling cadences with powerful, shadowy illustrations featuring looming whales, an upside-down ship in full sail, and swarms of red-eyed sharks, all amid dense swirls of water and blood.
Wrenching, dark, and powerful—no fluke, considering its model. (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-286072-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Readers will laugh, possibly uneasily, at Jack’s reckless antics and lack of impulse control, but they will probably also...
A misbegotten effort to reinvent himself leads young “Jack” to burn his notebooks and clothes, though not quite his bridges, in Gantos’ latest burst of confessional fiction.
This summer episode falls in chronology shortly after Jack’s Black Book (1997). Dissatisfied with his life and looking for a new model, 14-year-old Jack fixes with characteristic lack of good judgment on next-door-neighbor Gary Pagoda—a leather-jacketed older teen fresh out of juvie. Gary turns out to be a dab hand not only at testing his new amanuensis with life-threatening backyard games, but also hot-wiring cars and other thrillingly illegal amusements. Reflected in both jacket cover and chapter titles, fire or fireworks play a recurring role in events as Jack tries to make a clean break with his past by torching both his childhood journals and his clothes (replacing the latter with shoplifted goods). Jack’s narrative has a Wimpy Kid tone and appeal as, looking back, he’s well-aware of his own youthful fecklessness and almost eager to point out where he went wrong. But, not very surprisingly for readers who have been following his checkered career, he turns out to be a miserable failure at real evil.
Readers will laugh, possibly uneasily, at Jack’s reckless antics and lack of impulse control, but they will probably also sympathize with his deep itch to make a change. (preface, afterword) (Historical fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-374-37995-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This breathless political thriller isn't always coherent, but it keeps the adrenaline pumping
Two teens framed as terrorists need to save England from a terrorist attack and political takeover.
Charlie and Nat have been on the run since they were tricked into aiding a kidnapping and bombing (In a Split Second, 2015). Charlie, furious after the attack that killed her mother and left Nat's older brother in a coma, tried to do good by training as a soldier for the vigilante English Freedom Army. Nat and Charlie were told the EFA existed to fight terrorists like the racist League of Iron, but it turns out they were terrorists, fomenting chaos to support the political aspirations of charismatic politician Roman Riley. Now the teens, distracted by both their romance and Charlie's family secrets, must stop Riley from creating a far worse atrocity. Their single-minded focus on each other even as they learn of potentially horrific casualties can be read as either romantic or utterly lacking in empathy, but at least they prioritize the mission. Chapters that alternate their perspectives, most only about three pages, maintain endless urgency in the style of the television series 24. Though some lulls might have improved the flow, the nonstop action distracts from plot holes and flat secondary characters. U.S. readers may be bemused at the U.K. revolutionaries’ discussions of bombings but shock at the use of guns.
This breathless political thriller isn't always coherent, but it keeps the adrenaline pumping . (Thriller. 13-15)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-3926-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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