Promising, but loses its grip.
An imaginative fantasy begins with real potential but suffers from a heroine who’s a bit too flawed.
This adventure/romance provides thrills and intrigue, starting off solidly with Mia attracted to Sol, the mysterious, hunky new student with a fabulous eagle tattoo that covers his entire back. Mia realizes that the strange lights she’s seen around her rural town are connected to the disappearances of boys from the area. When her brother also disappears, Mia runs to save him but loses the necklace her mother had left her. Surreptitiously investigating Sol, she discovers that he has it. Caught, she runs from him until both are swept up into the Other Side, a video-game fantasy-style world existing in the empty spaces of our own. Mia drops her necklace yet again, only to learn that it can open the barrier between the two worlds and that the evil Suzerain, if he gets it, will use it to destroy our side. The story works well until the supposedly intelligent Mia begins causing much, if not most, of the story’s suspense by immediately doing what she has been warned not to do—which ultimately ends up driving the narrative. Those who can overlook Mia’s irritating conduct will enjoy her dangerous adventures and standard-issue budding romance with the increasingly magical Sol as they try to retrieve the necklace, rescue Mia’s brother, fight demons and learn more about Mia’s past. More focus on the intriguing fantasy world and less on Mia’s failings would help.
Promising, but loses its grip. (Fantasy. 12 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-3455-4
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
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