In the second installment of the Time Thriller trilogy, Jeff and Elizabeth are on their way to a high-school end-of-the-year party when a mysterious mist envelops their car and King Arthur comes riding out of it. Their otherwise ordinary American town of Fawlt Line lies on a mysterious time fault, and 200 years of mysterious time-related events have occurred there. However, Arthur has not quite shown up in the right place, as his legend says that he will “come back to help Britain in its greatest time of need.” Skipping back and forth between Fawlt Line and England, the narrative brings Arthur and his American friends together with the wise recluse Myrddin and an English priest struggling with his faith. The time-travel contrivance allows McCusker to compare the loss of the glory of Camelot to the soulless 21st century and to speculate on the place of God in this world. An enjoyable time travel romp with overt Christian content. (Christian fantasy. 10-14)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-310-71437-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Zondervan
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2009
Categories: TEEN MYSTERY & THRILLER | TEEN RELIGIOUS FICTION
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Who can't love a story about a Nigerian-American 12-year-old with albinism who discovers latent magical abilities and saves the world? Sunny lives in Nigeria after spending the first nine years of her life in New York. She can't play soccer with the boys because, as she says, "being albino made the sun my enemy," and she has only enemies at school. When a boy in her class, Orlu, rescues her from a beating, Sunny is drawn in to a magical world she's never known existed. Sunny, it seems, is a Leopard person, one of the magical folk who live in a world mostly populated by ignorant Lambs. Now she spends the day in mundane Lamb school and sneaks out at night to learn magic with her cadre of Leopard friends: a handsome American bad boy, an arrogant girl who is Orlu’s childhood friend and Orlu himself. Though Sunny's initiative is thin—she is pushed into most of her choices by her friends and by Leopard adults—the worldbuilding for Leopard society is stellar, packed with details that will enthrall readers bored with the same old magical worlds. Meanwhile, those looking for a touch of the familiar will find it in Sunny's biggest victories, which are entirely non-magical (the detailed dynamism of Sunny's soccer match is more thrilling than her magical world saving). Ebulliently original. (Fantasy. 11-13)
Pub Date: April 14, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-670-01196-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2011
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An accused murderer is thrust into an assassin training program.
Seventeen-year-old Signal Deere is serving hard time after a hazy night with her former best friend, Rose, which ended with Rose’s body in her lap, an emotional trial, and the media moniker the “Girl from Hell.” After her caseworker, Dave, assures Signal there’s no way she’ll get a successful appeal, he offers her an alternative: being shipped off to a mysterious camp and enrolled in a top-secret government training program unofficially known as the Teen Killers Club. There, Signal and other adolescent Class A felons (the most dangerous kind) undergo various drills—among them, dismembering fake corpses and dissolving flesh in acid—in preparation for eventually being used as assassins against government targets. The teens have been injected with a device remotely controlled by their trainers that will kill them if they attempt to escape the camp or otherwise disobey orders. As Signal nurses an attraction to sensitive tattooed Javier and fights her feelings for handsome sociopath Erik, she begins to piece together what really happened that night with Rose. Sparks crafts a page-turner with a disturbingly unusual premise, snappy dialogue, and characters that go deeper than their heinous crimes. Signal and Erik are assumed White; love interest Javier is cued as Latinx, and there is some diversity in the supporting cast.
A mystery/thriller that’s equal parts heartfelt and shocking. (Thriller. 15-adult)Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64385-229-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Crooked Lane
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2020
Categories: TEEN MYSTERY & THRILLER | GENERAL THRILLER & SUSPENSE
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Mena Reece’s freshman year is not turning out as planned; she’s been shunned by her friends because she blew the whistle on them. They all belong to an ultra-conservative church (Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings are banned from her reading list). Suspecting a fellow classmate to be gay, the group harassed him and after his attempted suicide, Mena sent an apologetic letter naming names. The boy’s family sues the church and everyone blames Mena for the disruption, especially her parents. Then Mena is paired with Casey Connor, a science geek, and her life takes a positive turn. When the science class begins the unit on evolution, Mena’s church insists Intelligent Design be included. As the church ramps up its demands, shy Mena finds her voice as Bible Grrrl, “defender of truth in biblical citations.” Suddenly, Bible Grrrl’s opinions are hot. Casey’s friendship allows Mena to question her conservative upbringing, and the fact that he really likes her helps her outlook immensely. An appealingly humorous take on themes classic and new. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-84349-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007
Categories: TEEN SCHOOL & FRIENDSHIP | TEEN RELIGIOUS FICTION | TEEN SOCIAL THEMES
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