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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A gripping thriller in dystopic future Los Angeles.
Fifteen-year-olds June and Day live completely different lives in the glorious Republic. June is rich and brilliant, the only candidate ever to get a perfect score in the Trials, and is destined for a glowing career in the military. She looks forward to the day when she can join up and fight the Republic’s treacherous enemies east of the Dakotas. Day, on the other hand, is an anonymous street rat, a slum child who failed his own Trial. He's also the Republic's most wanted criminal, prone to stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. When tragedies strike both their families, the two brilliant teens are thrown into direct opposition. In alternating first-person narratives, Day and June experience coming-of-age adventures in the midst of spying, theft and daredevil combat. Their voices are distinct and richly drawn, from Day’s self-deprecating affection for others to June's Holmesian attention to detail. All the flavor of a post-apocalyptic setting—plagues, class warfare, maniacal soldiers—escalates to greater complexity while leaving space for further worldbuilding in the sequel.
This is no didactic near-future warning of present evils, but a cinematic adventure featuring endearing, compelling heroes . (Science fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-399-25675-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: April 8, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
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The victory of Jacob and his fellow peculiars over the previous episode’s wights and hollowgasts turns out to be only one move in a larger game as Riggs (Tales of the Peculiar, 2016, etc.) shifts the scene to America.
Reading largely as a setup for a new (if not exactly original) story arc, the tale commences just after Jacob’s timely rescue from his decidedly hostile parents. Following aimless visits back to newly liberated Devil’s Acre and perfunctory normalling lessons for his magically talented friends, Jacob eventually sets out on a road trip to find and recruit Noor, a powerful but imperiled young peculiar of Asian Indian ancestry. Along the way he encounters a semilawless patchwork of peculiar gangs, syndicates, and isolated small communities—many at loggerheads, some in the midst of negotiating a tentative alliance with the Ymbryne Council, but all threatened by the shadowy Organization. The by-now-tangled skein of rivalries, romantic troubles, and family issues continues to ravel amid bursts of savage violence and low comedy (“I had never seen an invisible person throw up before,” Jacob writes, “and it was something I won’t soon forget”). A fresh set of found snapshots serves, as before, to add an eldritch atmosphere to each set of incidents. The cast defaults to white but includes several people of color with active roles.
Not much forward momentum but a tasty array of chills, thrills, and chortles. (Horror/Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-3214-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 2, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
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