Touches on it all—sex, ghosts, magic and dystopia—but masters none of it. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)
Two teens from opposite ends of the high-school caste system investigate their own identities and learn a hellishly perfect town’s provenance.
The two meet when they awake naked in the same bed, unable to remember how they arrived there. They don't even remember their own names; those they discover when locals in Summer Falls recognize them. In Summer Falls, all storybooks end on a high note, and inhabitants spontaneously pass out when they experience anything painful, recovering quickly to forget all details of distress. In their quest to understand who they are and what happened to them, Elyse and Marshall learn that they are endowed with complementary mystical abilities and that both possess dark family histories. Journals Elyse once left behind provide invaluable clues; somehow she once survived adversity long enough before a “heatnap” struck her to know that memory is unreliable. For readers who accept this, other questionable arrangements aren’t much more egregious. Discerning readers, though, will notice inconsistencies in the rules of Kitandis’ (Whisper, 2010) world. Though Elyse and Marshall alternately narrate, Marshall is less dynamic. No less inquisitive than she, he is more subdued and devoted to their budding romance. The author does not shy away from violence or spare the protagonists from personal connections to the forces of evil and oppression.
Touches on it all—sex, ghosts, magic and dystopia—but masters none of it. (Paranormal romance. 12 & up)Pub Date: April 17, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-179928-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
Lush, angsty, queer horror.
When the monsters they imagine come to life, two boys fight for their lives—and each other.
Andrew Perrault, who’s from Australia, writes beautiful, macabre fairy tales. His roommate at his American boarding school, Wickwood Academy, is talented artist Thomas Rye, who brings his stories to vivid life in paint and charcoal. Andrew’s twin sister, Dove, is all but ignoring him, so he has plenty of time to focus on Thomas’ increasingly odd behavior. Thomas’ parents disappeared just before the new school year started, and Andrew noticed blood on his roommate’s sleeve on their first day back. When he follows Thomas into the forest one night, Andrew discovers him fighting one of the monsters that Thomas has drawn from these stories. The boys soon find themselves coping with vicious bullies by day and fighting monsters by night. At the same time, Andrew struggles to reconcile his feelings for Thomas with his growing awareness of his own asexuality. But when the sinister Antler King breaches Wickwood’s walls, Andrew realizes that he and Thomas may not survive their own creations. This novel, written in rich, extravagant prose, features frank portrayals of disordered eating, self-harm, bullying, and mental illness. Andrew grapples realistically with his sexual identity, and the story has ample genuinely creepy moments with the monsters. Andrew, Thomas, and Dove are white.
Lush, angsty, queer horror. (content warning) (Horror. 14-18)Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250895660
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Aug. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
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