An ambitious epic that fails to delve beneath its promising surface.
A girl explores a stratified dystopian society in this debut YA sci-fi novel.
Fourteen-year-old Eva has grown up in the only aboveground city left on Earth: Layer Zero, or the Dome. By the 22nd century, global warming has caused most of the world to be covered in water, and what’s left of humanity has taken refuge in underground communities called the Layers, controlled by the mysterious, omnipotent Central Administration. Life in the Dome is peaceful and prosperous, untouched by the rest of the world’s problems, until a strange virus starts to spread among its citizens. Eva’s father, the Dome’s community leader, undertakes a dangerous journey to the Toronto Layers to buy much-needed medicine for his people. When he doesn’t return, Eva sets out to find him. What she discovers is a surprisingly habitable planet, a secretive government that controls its people with misinformation, and a budding rebellion. It’s clear by the end of the book that it could be the beginning of a long series. That explains some of the story’s incompleteness, including an aborted romance arc and a lack of detail about the Central Administration’s sinister plans. The plot might have been much more engaging if the author didn’t repeatedly stop the action to tell readers exactly how much Eva fears something. For example, when she encounters a storm, the next paragraph inevitably reads, “Eva’s mind was overflowing. She was terrified that, after all she had been through, this storm was going to kill her.” When she’s escaping from a hostile Layer, “She worried she wouldn’t be able to make it.” This habit not only slows down the story, but also makes the protagonist appear weak and passive. The book’s backdrop, however, is an imaginative dystopian world with occasional scenes of wonder, and the author beautifully draws the protagonist’s relationship with her deceased mother. In the end, though, it’s not enough to make Eva interesting.
An ambitious epic that fails to delve beneath its promising surface.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5194-9576-1
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing.
For the second time in her life, Leo must choose between her family and true love.
Nineteen-year-old Princess Leonie Kolburg’s royal family is bankrupt. In order to salvage the fortune they accrued before humans fled the frozen Earth 170 years ago, Leonie’s father is forcing her to participate in the Valg Season, an elaborate set of matchmaking events held to facilitate the marriages of rich and royal teens. Leo grudgingly joins in even though she has other ideas: She’s invented a water filtration system that, if patented, could provide a steady income—that is if Leo’s calculating Aunt Freja, the Captain of the ship hosting the festivities, stops blocking her at every turn. Just as Leo is about to give up hope, her long-lost love, Elliot, suddenly appears onboard three years after Leo’s family forced her to break off their engagement. Donne (Brightly Burning, 2018) returns to space, this time examining the fascinatingly twisted world of the rich and famous. Leo and her peers are nuanced, deeply felt, and diverse in terms of sexuality but not race, which may be a function of the realities of wealth and power. The plot is fast paced although somewhat uneven: Most of the action resolves in the last quarter of the book, which makes the resolutions to drawn-out conflicts feel rushed.
A thrilling romance that could use more even pacing. (Science fiction. 16-adult)Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-328-94894-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2019
A very full mixed bag.
In the sequel to Furyborn (2018), Rielle and Eliana struggle across time with their powers and prophesied destinies.
Giving readers only brief recaps, this book throws them right into complicated storylines in this large, lovingly detailed fantasy world filled with multiple countries, two different time periods, and hostile angels. Newly ordained Rielle contends with villainous Corien’s interest in her, the weakening gate that holds the angels at bay, and distrust from those who don’t believe her to be the Sun Queen. A thousand years in the future, Eliana chafes under her unwanted destiny and finds her fear of losing herself to her powers (like the Blood Queen) warring with her need to save those close to her. The rigid alternation between time-separated storylines initially feels overstuffed, undermining tension, but once more characters get point-of-view chapters and parallels start paying off, the pace picks up. The multiethnic cast (human versus angelic is the only divide with weight) includes characters of many sexual orientations, and their romantic storylines include love triangles, casual dalliances, steady couples, and couples willing to invite in a third. While many of the physically intimate scenes are loving, some are rougher, including ones that cross lines of clear consent and introduce a level of violence that many young readers will not be ready for. The ending brings heartbreaking twists to prime readers for the trilogy’s conclusion.
A very full mixed bag. (map, list of elements) (Fantasy. 17-adult)Pub Date: May 21, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4926-5665-4
Page Count: 608
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 19, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2019
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