With more skillful writing and editing, this could have been an engrossing tale.
Fourteen-year-old Emily, a Jewish American girl, is pushed through time to meet her ancestors in their youth.
In the prologue, the married adult Emily travels to Australia to visit her sickly grandmother, who mentions the summer years ago “when we were both fourteen.” From Chapter 1, Emily narrates the strange events of that summer: how a family trip got cut short by her mother’s cancer diagnosis and treatment and she and her 5-year-old brother, Billy, were sent to Australia to stay with their grandmother. During a midnight storm, Emily was transported back in time: first to her mother’s childhood in Australia, where she met the grandfather she never knew, then to her grandmother’s childhood in South Africa, the Lithuania of her great-grandmother, and, finally, ancient Babylon. In each region and era, Emily finds herself able to speak the language and pretend to be a local despite her need to ask questions whose answers she should know. She traces a history of anti-Semitism and varying injustices against Indigenous peoples while also reciting cultural and historical facts for readers’ edification. While the story’s concept is intriguing, its execution is lacking. The characters feel like place holders serving the plot, which itself lacks direction and momentum. Indigenous and black characters appear to explain or demonstrate their peoples’ plights to white main characters in strange, inauthentic ways.
With more skillful writing and editing, this could have been an engrossing tale. (notes) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: April 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-77183-457-5
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Guernica Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
Will both entertain and encourage reflection.
In Mersailles, “Cinderella” is more than just a fairy tale: It’s the basis for a harsh monarch’s throttlehold on his kingdom.
Sophia is turning 16, the age at which young women must attend King Manford’s annual ball, at which they are scrutinized by and married off to male attendees. Any young woman who has not been claimed after her third ball is destined to spend the rest of her days engaged in hard labor. But being chosen can be its own curse in a society where domestic violence is common. Sophia is a beautiful Black girl in love with dark-haired Erin, one of her best friends. While racial diversity is a natural part of this world, the same acceptance does not exist for those who defy rigid gender norms: Anything other than heterosexual desire is strictly forbidden, and while Sophia wishes to escape as a couple, Erin is too fearful. After fleeing the ball, Sophia stumbles across Cinderella’s mausoleum, hidden in the woods. There she meets rebellious Constance, an attractive young red-haired woman with a very personal motivation for sabotaging the monarchy. As the two grew closer—and sparks fly—they discover secrets that could end Manford’s cruel reign. This promising debut deals with themes around rebellion and empowerment as well as the toll that rejecting the status quo can take on relationships. The atmospheric setting is a particular strength, and the twists and turns will keep readers in suspense.
Will both entertain and encourage reflection. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: July 7, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0387-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: April 26, 2021
Sanderson (Legion, 2018, etc.) plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too.
Eager to prove herself, the daughter of a flier disgraced for cowardice hurls herself into fighter pilot training to join a losing war against aliens.
Plainly modeled as a cross between Katniss Everdeen and Conan the Barbarian (“I bathed in fires of destruction and reveled in the screams of the defeated. I didn’t get afraid”), Spensa “Spin” Nightshade leaves her previous occupation—spearing rats in the caverns of the colony planet Detritus for her widowed mother’s food stand—to wangle a coveted spot in the Defiant Defense Force’s flight school. Opportunities to exercise wild recklessness and growing skill begin at once, as the class is soon in the air, battling the mysterious Krell raiders who have driven people underground. Spensa, who is assumed white, interacts with reasonably diverse human classmates with varying ethnic markers. M-Bot, a damaged AI of unknown origin, develops into a comical sidekick: “Hello!...You have nearly died, and so I will say something to distract you from the serious, mind-numbing implications of your own mortality! I hate your shoes.” Meanwhile, hints that all is not as it seems, either with the official story about her father or the whole Krell war in general, lead to startling revelations and stakes-raising implications by the end. Stay tuned. Maps and illustrations not seen.
Sanderson (Legion, 2018, etc.) plainly had a ball with this nonstop, highflying opener, and readers will too. (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-55577-0
Page Count: 528
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
SEEN & HEARD
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