Though not as distinctive as its predecessor, this is a solid story for readers who want to approach ghosts without getting...
A girl seeks peace and stability for living and dead family members.
Sukie and her parents move into elderly cousin Hepzibah’s ancient, haunted mansion because they can’t afford to stay in their old house. Sukie’s deceased sister Kitty comes too, as a ghost. In life, Kitty’s job was protecting Sukie; in death, she continues. But ghosts can’t change, and they become frustrated when the living do. Kitty’s fury ramps up as Sukie tries to help another ghost and makes some living friends from the New-York Circulating Material Repository, the circulating collection of objects from The Grimm Legacy (2010) and The Wells Bequest (2013). One friend is Andre, who was a young child in the previous volumes. Unfortunately, here, Andre’s personality is vague and his physicality, othered—he’s the only black character and walks “like a panther,” with his height and long arms and legs mentioned incessantly. Copious literary references and a trip into the repository’s Poe Annex, a “separate dimension” of haunted houses from fictional texts, create texture, though the repository doesn’t sparkle as it did in The Wells Bequest. The coolest idea—that Sukie’s family, including her ghost-ancestor, may have descended from within fiction—is fabulous but underemphasized.
Though not as distinctive as its predecessor, this is a solid story for readers who want to approach ghosts without getting too spooked. (author’s note) (Fantasy. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-399-16614-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 9, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
One for the books—and for all who, like Alex, cherish them.
A young librarian discovers that books are living things that must be read and, sometimes, stabbed.
Teenage runaway Alexandren not only finds that the realm’s long-locked-up royal library where he lands a temporary gig has gone “feral and moldy and restless,” but that he too has become a target for certain specially marked and weaponized volumes. Fortunately, thanks to the martial upbringing he has fled, he turns out to be a dab hand with a blade. And, as Alex feels his way toward an understanding of his duties as a librarian, he finds unexpected allies in 16-year-old Queen Kenneret, newly crowned and also struggling to define her role and responsibilities, and Kenneret’s dyslexic but extremely bright younger brother, Charleren. Amid alarums and excursions Alex learns that all books and their contents can be commanded by certain Lost Books…particularly a Scroll of Kings that, it turns out, Kenneret’s scheming uncle is searching for as a means of usurping the throne. Along with slipping in many library jokes, Prineas makes sparks fly as Alex and Kenneret, both of whom are intense, prickly sorts, explore common ground and conflicting agendas. By the end, though the immediate crises have been resolved, there’s still plenty of unfinished business for future episodes to tackle. Alex is pale, and Kenneret has olive skin—in this world, the nobility is dark-skinned.
One for the books—and for all who, like Alex, cherish them. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-266558-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
The adventure continues, growing grander of scale and if possible even more lavish in visual detail.
Sisters reunite to lead the charge against a disembodied, mind-controlling evil in this second episode of the 5 Worlds series following The Sand Warrior (2017).
Following a string of chases, captures, escapes, and visits to several worldlets, young Oona Lee and her older sib, Jessa—the latter reeling under the realization that she had been tricked by the insidious Mimic into leading the opener’s treacherous attack—catch up to one another on Moon Toki to reaffirm their bond and to employ their Sand Dance magic to prevent the Mimic from freeing its long-captive heart. Already notable for exotic locales and an extravagantly diverse cast, this series adds more of both in its latest outing (included among the new characters are some plant people and a frisky but helpful blob of sacred oil named Ram Sam Sam). Some panels are still too small to hold the dialogue and larger-scale action comfortably, but the pacing is quick and fluid, and the dancing carries a suitably otherworldly air. Climactic victory comes at the cost of a wrenching sacrifice, but it clears the way for the main quest to save the ecologically stressed moons from ruin. (The final panel hints that a side jaunt may be up next, however.)
The adventure continues, growing grander of scale and if possible even more lavish in visual detail. (Graphic science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: May 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-101-93589-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
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