The clever evasions, desperate soul-searching, and surprise finale will please fans of the series.
In the Zeroes trilogy conclusion, the consequences of the teenagers’ superpowers greatly expand their reach.
When the Zeroes—minus Thibault, a white boy who is MIA after surrendering to his anonymizing powers at the end of Swarm (2016)—combine their powers to break their leader, Latino Nate, out of prison, they encounter a superpowered teen working for the FBI. Verity, a white girl, pulls truths out of people and is dangerous both because of the secrets she can extract for the authorities as well as for revealing the damaging secrets they keep from themselves. In the face of dangerous revelations and shifts in their dynamics (especially between Nate, changed by incarceration, and Riley, the white girl who led the team in his absence), they must pull together to avoid the feds and get to New Orleans, where others like them are gathering for a last shot at being heroes. Along with the six protagonists, characters from previous novels come up, and even more join the cast; between characters’ names and nicknames and the names and nicknames for various powers, it can be a lot for readers to juggle. The diversity is enhanced by a strong love story between two girls, Nigerian Chizara and white Kelsie, and by directly calling out the blind-with-superpowers trope in the case of Riley.
The clever evasions, desperate soul-searching, and surprise finale will please fans of the series. (Science fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4814-4342-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
A dark and gripping feminist tale.
A young woman faces her past to discover the truth about one of her nation’s heroes.
When Effy Sayre, the only female architecture student at her university in Llyr, wins the competition to design Hiraeth Manor for the estate of the late Emrys Myrddin, national literary figure and her favorite author, it is the perfect opportunity to leave behind a recent trauma. She arrives to find the cliffside estate is literally crumbling into the ocean, and she quickly realizes things may not be as they seem. Preston, an arrogant literature student, is also working at the estate, gathering materials for the university’s archives and questioning everything Effy knows about Myrddin. When Preston offers to include her name on his thesis—which may allow her to pursue the dream of studying literature that was frustrated by the university’s refusal to admit women literature students—Effy agrees to help him. He’s on a quest for answers about the source of Myrddin’s most famous work, Angharad, a romance about a cruel Fairy King who marries a mortal woman. Meanwhile, Myrddin’s son has secrets of his own. Preston and Effy start to suspect that Myrddin’s fairy tales may hold more truth than they realize. The Welsh-inspired setting is impressively atmospheric, and while some of the mythology ends up feeling extraneous, the worldbuilding is immersive and thoughtfully addresses misogyny and its effects on how history is written. Main characters are cued white.
A dark and gripping feminist tale. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2023
ISBN: 9780063211506
Page Count: 384
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression.
After surviving a suicide attempt, a fragile teen isn't sure she can endure without cutting herself.
Seventeen-year-old Charlie Davis, a white girl living on the margins, thinks she has little reason to live: her father drowned himself; her bereft and abusive mother kicked her out; her best friend, Ellis, is nearly brain dead after cutting too deeply; and she's gone through unspeakable experiences living on the street. After spending time in treatment with other young women like her—who cut, burn, poke, and otherwise hurt themselves—Charlie is released and takes a bus from the Twin Cities to Tucson to be closer to Mikey, a boy she "like-likes" but who had pined for Ellis instead. But things don't go as planned in the Arizona desert, because sweet Mikey just wants to be friends. Feeling rejected, Charlie, an artist, is drawn into a destructive new relationship with her sexy older co-worker, a "semifamous" local musician who's obviously a junkie alcoholic. Through intense, diarylike chapters chronicling Charlie's journey, the author captures the brutal and heartbreaking way "girls who write their pain on their bodies" scar and mar themselves, either succumbing or surviving. Like most issue books, this is not an easy read, but it's poignant and transcendent as Charlie breaks more and more before piecing herself back together.
This grittily provocative debut explores the horrors of self-harm and the healing power of artistic expression. (author’s note) (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-93471-5
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
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