Limned in stark red, white and black, this cold, delicate snowflake of a tale sparkles with icy magic.
This trilogy opener from a talented young author has a bracing energy that stands up to the most muscular of Scandinavian thrillers and a heroine more than equal to her competition.
Named for Snow White, Lumikki, 17, lives alone in Tampere, Finland, attending a magnet arts school far from her parents and hometown. If her grim childhood still prompts nightmares, it’s also given her important gifts—chief among them, her ability to deflect attention while closely observing those unaware of her. (Lumikki’s sure to draw comparison to Lisbeth Salander, but Peter Høeg’s Smilla is her true sister under the skin.) In her school’s darkroom, she stumbles into (literally) an appalling secret: thousands of dripping euros hung to dry. Despite an evident attempt to cleanse them, they still smell of blood. Within hours, Lumikki’s pulled into a claustrophobic conspiracy with three popular, high-profile students. Meanwhile, a young Russian woman not much older than Lumikki lies dead nearby, at the heart of the mystery into which Lumikki and her classmates are drawn. The starkly powerful opening paragraph of the Grimms’ “Snow White” provides the narrative frame, and it’s no flimsy high concept—rather, Simukka’s onto something: Fairy tales, like mysteries, present uncompromising moral imperatives—no soft, comforting shades of gray for even the youngest readers.
Limned in stark red, white and black, this cold, delicate snowflake of a tale sparkles with icy magic. (Thriller. 13 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1477847718
Page Count: 236
Publisher: Skyscape
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell...
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age.
The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist—30 million kruge!—Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It’s a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2.
Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family . (Fantasy. 14 & up)Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62779-212-7
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
BOOK TO SCREEN
A romantic, heart-pounding adventure.
In 1884, a 19-year-old Argentine and Bolivian heiress sets sail to investigate the mysterious deaths of her parents in Egypt.
Inez Olivera grew up in Buenos Aires largely without the presence of her mother and father, who often were in British-ruled Egypt, assisting Tío Ricardo, her archaeologist uncle, with his expeditions. When word comes that Inez’s parents have disappeared in the desert and are presumed dead, she intends to find out exactly what happened to them—much to the chagrin of secretive, smoldering Whitford Hayes. Former British soldier Whit works for Tío Ricardo, who orders him to send the reluctant Inez back home for her own safety. But Inez repeatedly and craftily evades this demand. She realizes that a golden ring her father sent from Cairo before he disappeared has imprinted her with magic that may help unearth Cleopatra’s tomb. Tío Ricardo, a historical preservationist who opposes colonial exploitation, is desperate to find it before greedy treasure hunters can rob Egypt of its artifacts. As the story unfolds through Inez’s and Whit’s alternating points of view, the chemistry between them sizzles, and they run into danger and deception at every turn of their epic quest—all while remaining unsure if they can even trust one another. Extensive worldbuilding in the first half pays off with a fast-paced conclusion laden with shocking twists. A jaw-dropping cliffhanger in the epilogue will leave readers deliciously questioning everything and hungering for the sequel.
A romantic, heart-pounding adventure. (map, timeline, author’s note) (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781250803375
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Wednesday Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
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