The separate worlds—and the Parallel between—face a threat that Cameron and his friends must stop in this Scottish import.
A pre-prologue exposition explains how a conspiracy attempted to separate the Human and Daemon worlds, achieving only partial separation and instead creating a gap between worlds. That gap—the Parallel—allows only the descendants of the World Split conspirators who caused it to travel between worlds. After a prologue, readers encounter Cameron and his friends from Daemon Parallel (2012)—werewolf Morgan and Eve, the young ex-Daemon servant who was prematurely aged to adulthood when her ex-mistress stole her body—running Cameron’s evil grandmother’s business. Dr Black arrives with a large, lumpy Mr Grey and a convincing legal claim on the business that sends the young heroes to the Parallel’s Court, where, unless they can prove Cameron’s dead grandmother still lives, they’ll lose everything. The wild plot involves mythological figures, deals forged on technicalities and the revelation that their adversaries have a bigger goal than the business. The madcap world is grounded by the relationships among characters as well as their struggles to fit into any world; newly minted werewolf Cameron’s wolf-longings and the disjuncture between Eve’s chronological and physical ages especially stand out. The villain goes from gross to terrifying, and the heroes end up making a bittersweet sacrifice that will leave readers demanding a continuation.
Clever, creative and fun. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-178250-054-4
Page Count: 275
Publisher: Kelpiesteen
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2014
Categories: TEENS & YOUNG ADULT FICTION
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In honor of its 25th anniversary, a Disney Halloween horror/comedy film gets a sequel to go with its original novelization.
Three Salem witches hanged in 1693 for stealing a child’s life force are revived in 1993 when 16-year-old new kid Max completes a spell by lighting a magical candle (which has to be kindled by a virgin to work). Max and dazzling, popular classmate Allison have to keep said witches at bay until dawn to save all of the local children from a similar fate. Fast-forward to 2018: Poppy, daughter of Max and Allison, inadvertently works a spell that sends her parents and an aunt to hell in exchange for the gleeful witches. With help from her best friend, Travis, and classmate Isabella, on whom she has a major crush, Poppy has only hours to keep the weird sisters from working more evil. The witches, each daffier than the last, supply most of the comedy as well as plenty of menace but end up back in the infernal regions. There’s also a talking cat, a talking dog, a gaggle of costumed heroines, and an oblique reference to a certain beloved Halloween movie. Traditional Disney wholesomeness is spiced, not soured, by occasional innuendo and a big twist in the sequel. Poppy and her family are white, while Travis and Isabella are both African-American.
A bit of envelope-pushing freshens up the formula. (Fantasy. 10-15)Pub Date: July 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-368-02003-9
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Freeform/Disney
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2018
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A harrowing tale of survival in the Killing Fields.
The childhood of Arn Chorn-Pond has been captured for young readers before, in Michelle Lord and Shino Arihara's picture book, A Song for Cambodia (2008). McCormick, known for issue-oriented realism, offers a fictionalized retelling of Chorn-Pond's youth for older readers. McCormick's version begins when the Khmer Rouge marches into 11-year-old Arn's Cambodian neighborhood and forces everyone into the country. Arn doesn't understand what the Khmer Rouge stands for; he only knows that over the next several years he and the other children shrink away on a handful of rice a day, while the corpses of adults pile ever higher in the mango grove. Arn does what he must to survive—and, wherever possible, to protect a small pocket of children and adults around him. Arn's chilling history pulls no punches, trusting its readers to cope with the reality of children forced to participate in murder, torture, sexual exploitation and genocide. This gut-wrenching tale is marred only by the author's choice to use broken English for both dialogue and description. Chorn-Pond, in real life, has spoken eloquently (and fluently) on the influence he's gained by learning English; this prose diminishes both his struggle and his story.
Though it lacks references or suggestions for further reading, Arn's agonizing story is compelling enough that many readers will seek out the history themselves. (preface, author's note) (Historical fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: May 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-173093-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
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