An up-all-night read that’s clever and heartfelt.
In this YA fantasy debut, three siblings find themselves ensnared in a plot by demons to rule the world.
Seven years ago, Jon, Kelly, and Travis Bishop were out driving at night with their parents when their minivan suddenly crashed. Despite the efforts of Jon—age 10—and a few strangers, the children’s parents died. Now Jon is a high school junior, Kelly is 13, and Travis is 10. After seven years apart in various homes, the siblings have reunited under the care of Chris and Angie McCormick of Chantilly, Virginia. One day, the kids venture to Crystal Creek Park with Chris and local teachers Anton Edwards and Mark Parrish to explore Pandora’s Cave. As Kelly films the natural splendors with a camcorder, the group experiences a cave-in. Next, they stumble upon a horde of demons gathered before a stage. A human businessman then addresses the creatures, promising them a way to supplant humanity on the surface world. Soon, the demons discover the explorers and chase after them. Kelly, Travis, and Dr. Parrish escape—while the others wait for a rescue team. Eventually, the rescuers exit the cave, stating that they are fine and repeating the mantra that they “must work hard and fast.” Jon emerges at last—but now speaks with a perfect British accent. Author Gemmill has supercharged his YA debut with a tantalizing dose of oddness. Even before meeting the Demon Nation, readers learn that Kelly can read minds, Travis can feel others’ emotions, and Jon is a practicing swordsman. After leaving Pandora’s Cave, the mysterious “head injuries” that Chris and Jon suffer lead to erratic behavior: Chris holes up in the basement to create a secret “product” while Jon trains himself as a magician. Amid all this, Gemmill inserts some great science tidbits, like the cavern flowers created by a “trace amount of limestone in every [water] drop.” Later, heroine Kelly offers the sinister claim that with her telepathy, nobody could stop her from becoming president. Overall, Gemmill toys with his audience in truly subtle ways.
An up-all-night read that’s clever and heartfelt.Pub Date: July 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-44883-0
Page Count: 370
Publisher: Cottingham-McMasters Publishing House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.
A fantasy adventure with a sometimes-biting wit.
Tress is an ordinary girl with no thirst to see the world. Charlie is the son of the local duke, but he likes stories more than fencing. When the duke realizes the two teenagers are falling in love, he takes Charlie away to find a suitable wife—and returns with a different young man as his heir. Charlie, meanwhile, has been captured by the mysterious Sorceress who rules the Midnight Sea, which leaves Tress with no choice but to go rescue him. To do that, she’ll have to get off the barren island she’s forbidden to leave, cross the dangerous Verdant Sea, the even more dangerous Crimson Sea, and the totally deadly Midnight Sea, and somehow defeat the unbeatable Sorceress. The seas on Tress’ world are dangerous because they’re not made of water—they’re made of colorful spores that pour down from the world’s 12 stationary moons. Verdant spores explode into fast-growing vines if they get wet, which means inhaling them can be deadly. Crimson and midnight spores are worse. Ships protected by spore-killing silver sail these seas, and it’s Tress’ quest to find a ship and somehow persuade its crew to carry her to a place no ships want to go, to rescue a person nobody cares about but her. Luckily, Tress is kindhearted, resourceful, and curious—which also makes her an appealing heroine. Along her journey, Tress encounters a talking rat, a crew of reluctant pirates, and plenty of danger. Her story is narrated by an unusual cabin boy with a sharp wit. (About one duke, he says, “He’d apparently been quite heroic during those wars; you could tell because a great number of his troops had died, while he lived.”) The overall effect is not unlike The Princess Bride, which Sanderson cites as an inspiration.
Engrossing worldbuilding, appealing characters, and a sense of humor make this a winning entry in the Sanderson canon.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 9781250899651
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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