Frequently baffling and uneven; only for readers already invested in Lucky.
Following The Culling (2013), Recruit-turned–Imposer trainee Lucian “Lucky” Spark observes the Trials, a yearly competition in which horror-movie–esque situations determine which competitor’s loved one dies; his position may be new, but it is still potentially deadly.
Lucky takes advantage of his new, privileged position as Trials winner to gain access to munitions and locations for sabotage and terrorist attacks against the regime he serves. Still a guileless hero, Lucky isn’t the stealthiest insurgent—his primary antagonist, Cassius, sees through him, and he runs afoul of the organized resistance. After straightening things out, they send him to assassinate Cassius and the prime minister, but when the time comes, a terrible, surprising choice botches the mission (as in the first book, choices again are a major theme). As punishment, Cassius sends Lucky and his fellow Imposer trainees back to the Trials—this time as Incentives who will be killed if their Recruit places last in a contest. Lucky must find a way to escape and save as many fellow hostages as possible. Although the prose revels in gore, readers are spared psychological horror, as most imperiled characters lack necessary development for emotional attachment. In the final act, a series of double crosses (and even triple crosses) and plot twists comes so fast readers won’t have time to ponder implications and motivations.
Frequently baffling and uneven; only for readers already invested in Lucky. (Science fiction. 13-16)Pub Date: March 8, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3540-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
New mysteries—Does the cure work? Why are teenagers exploding?—will keep Jessie's story going for at least one more volume.
Volume three in the 13 to Life series begins in a mental asylum and ends with an unexpected burst of girl power.
Jessie's life is complicated: Her current boyfriend Pietr's a werewolf, her ex-boyfriend controls minds and her blood is a vital ingredient in the cure for lycanthropy. To top it all off, she's been thrown into a pseudo-Victorian mental institution of dubious legitimacy. The narrative, alternating between Jessie's point of view and that of Pietr’s human brother, leaves no point of drama unexploited. There are imprisoned mothers and battered girlfriends, Interpol and the Russian mob, drugged cafeteria food and zombie-golem-robot thugs. Jessie and her friends are determined to rescue Pietr’s mother from a shadowy organization that is probably not the CIA, but at what cost? It's not always clear what's going on, with prose so terse (one-to-two–sentence paragraphs are the norm) that vital information is often left unsaid. Still, all the players manage to come together for a final shootout that gives the girls an opportunity to get a small amount of their own vengeance—a brief moment of respite in the institutionalization, domestic violence, rape, medical experimentation and other constant violence against women that permeates Jessie's story.
New mysteries—Does the cure work? Why are teenagers exploding?—will keep Jessie's story going for at least one more volume. (Paranormal romance. 13-15)Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-60916-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2011
The Salt trilogy closes with a third generation of children fighting petty but dangerous evils. Hana, a girl from the city's wretched Bawdhouse Burrow, is orphaned when her mother is burned as a witch. Ben grows up far from the city, raised by his grandparents Pearl and Hari in the idyllic village from Gool (2010). When Hana flees the city, she brings with her a terrifying message for those outside its darkness: The Limping Man is coming. He has the terrible power to make people love him even as he torments them, and he plans to wipe out all who stand against him. Since most of the outsiders—Ben's family, the forest Dwellers and "the people without a name"—have mental powers, the Limping Man intends to massacre them. Ben and Hana, along with their allies, must find the Limping Man's secret in order to save their own lives and homes. Ben and Hana’s victories, like those of their parents and grandparents, are local. Even if they do defeat the Limping Man, they cannot vanquish evil from the world; life in the burrows will likely continue to be nasty, brutish and short. The heroes' personalities are defined by their harsh environments, but they reach beyond those limitations. Fantasy heroes who can save only themselves and their loved ones are a welcome change from the usual. (Fantasy. 13-15)
Pub Date: March 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-55469-216-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orca
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2011
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