Though occasionally uneven, this poetic, Frankenstein-esque tale forms a page-turning whole.
A lonely, motherless girl with a clockwork heart risks everything to create a mechanical friend in a futuristic Ireland where computers are forbidden.
After an ill-defined technological crisis known as the Turn caused a devastating epidemic, Ireland was divided into Pale and Pasture—sick and well—and now spurns all but the most necessary technology. The citizens of the Pale are all missing parts, but prostheses are "augmentations" rather than disadvantages. Gay and gender-fluid characters appear without remark. Dark-haired, brown-skinned Nell Starling-Crane, whose father fashions the sophisticated prostheses, is nevertheless set apart; she's the only citizen with a mechanical heart, the loud ticking of which makes her self-conscious. Contributing to adult society is crucial for avoiding a life in stonework or marriage, but despite a looming project deadline, Nell has no ideas…until she decides to build a sentient android companion from ancient computer parts, defying the law against artificial intelligence. Griffin explores the ethical quandaries of progress, love, class, and ambition in language as ornate as the characters' decorated prostheses; sometimes a phrase catches the eye, and sometimes the heavy mix of metaphors almost camouflages the story underneath. Chapters alternate between third-person accounts of Nell's exploits and second-person observations of Nell's past and present. The observer is not always clear, which makes the perspective shifts disorienting. Nevertheless, the plot is compelling, full of secrets, blackmail, and betrayals that resolve at just the right moments—convenient, yes, but satisfying.
Though occasionally uneven, this poetic, Frankenstein-esque tale forms a page-turning whole. (Science fiction. 13 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-240888-4
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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