Despite the exciting premise, an unexceptional SF mystery.
Based on the serialized mystery podcast of the same name, this novel follows the adventures of 11-year-old Manu “Mars” Patel and his buddies as they attempt to find Aurora Gershowitz and Jonas Hopkins, two of their missing friends.
When Aurora inexplicably is incommunicado for five days, Mars worries that something is amiss. But when Jonas does not return from an emergency trip to the restroom, Mars and his pals (and fellow delinquents)—the strong JP McGowan, the extremely smart Randall “Toothpick” Lee, and the psychic Caddie Pratchett—realize that they’re the only ones who are willing to admit that children in the Puget Sound area are going missing. As they pursue the mystery, the friends figure out that children have actually been going missing from around the world, and they begin to suspect brilliant billionaire Oliver Pruitt (who is vaguely reminiscent of Elon Musk) is the culprit. Transcripts from Pruitt’s podcast are interspersed throughout the text, offering clues to ardent listener Mars. Better-developed characters and a tighter narrative—especially in the first half of the novel—would have made for a more memorable and gripping read, especially given the intriguing plot points. The cliffhanger ending might result in fans anxiously awaiting what comes next. Some characters’ identities bring diversity to the cast—Mars is Indian; nonbinary JP uses the pronouns they/them.
Despite the exciting premise, an unexceptional SF mystery. (Science fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5362-0956-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Generous portions of yum for fans of mysteries and mille-feuille.
Mix one shy tween, one unwelcome new woman in her single dad’s life, one Victorian hotel, and one TV cook-off prone to mysterious failures. Shake and bake.
Ever since the fifth grade calf’s foot jelly incident, Alice has kept her love for cookery on the down low—but all bets are off after she learns that Hana, her food historian dad’s girlfriend, has signed him up for a weeklong reality cooking competition ominously christened Culinary Combat. Events conspire to keep Alice on the hop too, as the challenge of facing the show’s caustic, terrifying judge while preparing dishes like Victoria sponge cake and charlotte russe on camera—at first as her dad’s sous-chef, then alone after he’s eliminated for alleged misbehavior—is complicated by a string of malfunctioning appliances and other odd kitchen mishaps…not to mention her own tangled feelings about Hana, who introduces her to the intriguing world of Japanese desserts and is actually pretty cool in other ways. Spooning new friends with surprising talents, savvy detective work (it turns out the show does have a saboteur), and mouthwatering foodie talk (if no actual recipes) into this culinary caper, Delaney dishes up a savory tale that tests her young cuisinier—in the face of change as much as in the kitchen—on the way to a flying finish. Alice and her dad present White; Hana has some Japanese ancestry; and there is diversity in the supporting cast.
Generous portions of yum for fans of mysteries and mille-feuille. (Mystery. 10-13)Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7352-6927-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Puffin/Penguin Random House Canada
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center.
Armed only with her magical sewing needle, foundling mouse Delphine sets out to confront the cruel rat king in this duology closer.
As vicious rat armies pillage the mouse realms in search of her and her pointy, long-hidden treasure, Delphine finds herself waging an inner war that parallels the outer one. According to dusty documents and other reputable sources, the needle’s good powers can be perverted, but she sees no other way except killing to stop evil rat King Midnight. While struggling with a grim determination to go over to the dark side that sets her at odds with her own fundamentally loving nature, Delphine threads her way along with loyal allies past various scrapes—only to come, climactically, face to face with not only her nemesis, but her own past. Moon stitches in flashbacks to fill out the details of a tragic old love triangle that reaches its fruition here and sews her tale up with a return to Château Desjardins just in time for Cinderella’s wedding and a celebratory rodentine ball in the chandelier overhead, and she leaves a fringe of epilogue hinting at further installments to come.
Less charming than the opener but does feature a thimbleful of moral quandary at its center. (secret codes) (Animal fantasy. 10-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-368-04833-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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