A necessary start, with intriguing hints at action and weirdness to come.
Taking photos of the dangers in the Spill Zone can be deadly, but it pays the bills.
Three years ago something happened to Poughkeepsie, New York. Nanotech outbreak? Nuclear accident? Alien invasion? Trans-dimensional breach? Anyone who knows isn’t saying. Most of the residents still exist, but they’re “meat puppets,” floating, glowing, and unresponsive. The rats might chase you, and the cats might sound like they’re speaking, but there are also nightmare beasts on the prowl. Addison sneaks past checkpoints on her motorbike to take pictures and sell them on the black market to support herself and her younger sister, Lexa, who hasn’t spoken since the spill. When a collector bypasses the tough-as-nails white teen’s middleman and reveals he’s been cheating her, Addison takes on a mission for the collector that will put her in extreme danger…but may pay enough to get her out of the game for good. Bestselling prose novelist Westerfeld kicks off a graphic-novel series of dark sci-fi adventures set in the very near future and sets up an interesting milieu. Another spill in North Korea, Lexa’s talking doll, and the effects of the spill on survivors are hinted at as the action progresses. Animator Puvilland’s full-color illustrations are appropriately wild, jagged, and threatening. Readers will be demanding the next installment as they close this one.
A necessary start, with intriguing hints at action and weirdness to come. (Graphic science fiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 2, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59643-936-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: Feb. 13, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
Quite possibly the best teen novel featuring a girl questioning her sexuality written in years.
Big-town girl stuck in a small-town world full of lies falls for another girl.
Astrid's parents moved both her and her sister away from their New York City home years ago to a small town symbolically called Unity Valley. Since then her mom has drunk the society Kool-Aid, and her dad takes mental vacations in the garage to smoke weed. Astrid doesn't feel like she fits in anywhere. Two friends keep her sane: her closeted BFF, Kristina, and Dee, a star hockey player she met while working for a local catering company. Sparks fly between Astrid and Dee, causing Astrid to feel even more distanced and confused. Meanwhile, Kristina and her boyfriend/beard Justin use Astrid as cover for their own same-sex sweethearts, adding more fuel to the fire. King has created an intense, fast-paced, complex and compelling novel about sexuality, politics and societal norms that will force readers outside their comfort zones. The whole town—even the alleged gay characters—buy into the Stepford-like ideal, and King elegantly uses Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave" to help readers understand life inside and outside of the box. Only Astrid knows what she wants. She’s in love with Dee, but she's not sure if she’s a lesbian. She’s ignoring all of the labels and focusing on what she feels.
Quite possibly the best teen novel featuring a girl questioning her sexuality written in years. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Oct. 23, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-19468-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up.
A grim, modern-day manifestation of the Peter Pan tale drawn from subtle, dark elements in the original text.
Wendy Darling is a sweet, naïve 17-year-old who just moved to Chicago. One night, Peter Pan comes through her open window, expecting an empty house and instead becoming enamored with the girl inside. Wendy herself is immediately enchanted by Peter, whose boyish charm and good looks convince her to join him for a night on the town along with his spunky and snappy ex-girlfriend Tinkerbelle. During the course of a single night, Wendy runs into more of Peter’s connections, including a collection of orphans he houses off the grid, a Detective Hook eager to bring him down, and other counterparts from the source material (including the racist caricature of a Native girl, gracefully realized here as a three-dimensional young Ojibwe woman). But as the night goes on and Peter’s facade grows more transparent, the frightful truth at his center threatens the safety of everyone involved. Eschewing literal magic, Ancrum’s remix is spellbinding and psychologically compelling despite a slower-moving middle. The haunting truth surrounding Peter is well earned and disturbing, a perfect—and bleak—transformation of the character for the 21st century. Wendy is Black, Peter and Tink are White, and the supporting cast represents myriad racial and queer identities.
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26526-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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