Delicious and dangerous, with a side helping of romance.
A cooking competition for the gods spells danger—and offers great possibilities.
Sixteen-year-old Cai has always had a passion for cooking, instilled in her by her late father, a skilled chef. Though she runs only a humble noodle stall, her dream is to win the Celestial Banquet, a cooking competition in honor of and judged by the gods. Not only does the winning chef gain recognition—important for someone from a backwater like Cai’s Peninsula—but they also receive a peach of immortality, worth unimaginable riches. In order to enter, Cai will have to convince her cantankerous local minor god, Kama, to sponsor a team. And if she hopes to win, she’ll have to excel at the culinary tasks posed by the gods, contend with the Empress’s machinations, and juggle her attraction to two different boys, Bo and Seon, both of whom are attending the competition with her. The love triangle storyline is balanced by the presence of intriguing side characters and plentiful descriptions of mouthwatering food. The cooking competition, while cutthroat and full of deadly perils, offers an original take on the usual divine tests of skills found in fantasy novels, offering readers a fresh set of tasks to savor. The worldbuilding, which is influenced by both East and Southeast Asia, is a delightful medley of cuisines and cultures.
Delicious and dangerous, with a side helping of romance. (map, Celestial Banquet teams) (Fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781638931263
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sweet July/Zando
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PROFILES
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
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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