The young come to the rescue of the future as this series reaches its celebratory climax.
In the conclusion to Deeb’s YA SF series, a brilliant young hacker and her friends strive to purge evil forces that have corrupted an amazing technocratic utopia located below the ground.
In a future beset by climate-change strife in the “Aboves” zone, Southern California teenager and math prodigy (and recreational super-hacker) Dorothy “Doro” Campbell had been initiated into a secretive society called Seneca. Operating out of a vast and advanced subterranean complex (with satellite installations around the world), Seneca ostensibly grooms elite youths to become the saviors of the endangered Earth. In reality, however, the place has been compromised by amoral, power-hungry corporate forces with a different agenda. Doro, aided by her biotechnologist boyfriend, Dominic, and a few other trusted allies, has uncovered evidence of nanotechnology surveillance, media lies, and mind control. She has also investigated the mysterious disappearance of her father, Johnny, who had just discovered a solution to heal the atmosphere’s sundered ozone layer. In this installment, Doro emerges from a 54-day coma, a side-effect of a neural attack courtesy of the sinister Flex Corporation. Doro and Dom are mentally wired into an online connection with other humans throughout Seneca. This is a sword that cuts both ways: The duo can virtually travel anywhere and sense conspiracies (such as an ambitious Mars settlement-terraforming scheme meant to extend Seneca’s totalitarian rule to another planet), but at the same time they are vulnerable to nefarious traps and digital fail-safes in the system. With hidden allies emerging from all directions, can the tide be turned? This is very much a gang’s-all-here cast reunion of the various heroes, villains, and in-betweens from throughout Deeb’s series, many proclaiming slogans like “The time has come for us to take back the tools of oppression. Help us reshape the world” in pep-rally proliferation. The “science” aspect of the narrative is fairly indistinguishable from magic, but the author ably depicts the exhilaration of dawning mass-awareness in a shared consciousness and reliably delivers the SF genre’s seemingly mandatory messages of resilience, eco-justice, and girl power as the saga reaches an upbeat conclusion.
The young come to the rescue of the future as this series reaches its celebratory climax.Pub Date: May 5, 2025
ISBN: 9781734201635
Page Count: 196
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Somberly beautiful.
A girl goes in search of her missing sister and discovers a strange hidden world of dreams.
Corin, who’s 18 and dark-skinned, strives to protect her 12-year-old sister, Elly. But life as a thief is full of struggle, poverty, and loss, even without Corin’s avoidance of other relationships. Elly clings to the promise of fairy tales, like the one that says a princess lies sleeping in an underground castle after pricking her finger on a spindle. After the sisters fight and Elly runs off, Corin searches for her in Gyldan’s old network of tunnels—and finds the tale is true: Cursed Princess Amelia, golden-haired, with eyes like “sea glass” and porcelain skin, lies asleep, surrounded by flowers. Corin enters the princess’ dreamworld—the place “where your subconscious desires come to life.” She meets Briar Rose, Amelia’s alter ego, who experienced her share of sadness and wanted to fall asleep. Also in the dreamworld is green-skinned Malicine, the nonbinary demon who, despite having placed the curse of eternal slumber on Amelia, is mostly friendly. All three are running from things they can’t face, though the dreamworld may not give them a choice. Pham’s debut, a Sapphic reimagining of “Sleeping Beauty,” explores mental health and asks a lot of readers as it seesaws between emotional confrontations, time jumps, and scenes where one character inhabits the memories of another, all of which demand intense engagement. Still, the ending is earned as well as positive.
Somberly beautiful. (content note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2026
ISBN: 9798217113026
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Kokila
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty.
In this retelling of a classic, a drama student’s obsession with beauty leads her down a dark—and possibly deadly—path.
Eighteen-year-old Penny Paxton is beginning her first year at Dorian Drama Academy in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she hopes to follow in her starlet mother’s footsteps—and earn the love that her mother has never seemed to offer. At Dorian, Penny is mentored by Royal Shakespeare Company legend Orlagh Camran, who makes her the compelling offer of a portrait by the Masked Painter, a mysterious artist with the ability to gift his subjects everlasting youth and beauty. But shortly after Penny’s portrait is complete, several of the Masked Painter’s subjects are found murdered. Fearing that she’s made a terrible mistake and may become the next victim, Penny, who’s gay, begins to investigate the murders with the help of an unlikely ally. As she attempts to uncover the truth surrounding the Masked Painter and the murders, she’s forced to reckon with her own toxic obsession with beauty. This chilling, atmospheric novel, inspired by The Picture of Dorian Gray, is entertaining and full of twists, though some of the reveals feel contrived and some questions are left unanswered. The plot unravels at a leisurely pace but eventually builds to an action-packed (if somewhat convoluted) conclusion. Most characters are cued white.
An entertaining and atmospheric, though sometimes clumsy, exploration of the true cost of beauty. (content note, author’s note, bonus scene) (Fantasy thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: May 26, 2026
ISBN: 9781250346797
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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