A gripping, layered tale of magic, memory, and identity.
A teen discovers a hidden world beneath his town and must stop a dark force that threatens two worlds in Wriston’s YAnovel.
High schooler Jack doesn’t think much of his strange dream about a close friend’s betrayal until an earthquake in his small Pennsylvanian town reveals a cave with mysterious writing on its walls. On his way to school, Jack passes by the cave and is nearly drawn inside by ghostly voices. Afterward, he’s met by his girlfriend, Emma, but he spends the rest of the day feeling off. A new tension—between the ordinary and the impossible—hangs over him like a fog. He ends up back at the cave with his best friend, Emerson, and this time they both hear it: a scream from deep within and voices that don’t feel imagined. The line between reality and dreams starts to blur as Jack begins to question whether his mother knows more than she’s letting on and if the voice he heard in the cave belonged to his missing classmate, Stefani. When Stefani is erased from everyone’s memory the next day, Jack and Emerson realize that something sinister is afoot. What starts as a mystery about a cave becomes something deeper: the dismantling of Jack’s life, piece by piece, until the only thing left is the choice to give in to the forgetting or to fight for a world that he’s starting to doubt ever existed (“I don’t even know what’s real anymore”). Throughout all of this, the writing holds steady even as the ground beneath the characters’ feet doesn’t. Tension builds in precise increments with a strange dream here, a missing person there, until suddenly nothing is certain. Jack wrestles not only with startling revelations about a magical world called Kazumeth but also the weight of grief, doubt, and loneliness. It’s these emotions that the main antagonist, Akuramundo, plays on as he turns allies against each other and works within the shadows to throw both worlds into turmoil. The pacing is brisk, and the narrative is layered with tension that complements the slow build of the first half. This is a story that is both compelling and thought-provoking.
A gripping, layered tale of magic, memory, and identity.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2025
ISBN: 9798998628900
Page Count: 364
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning.
Two teens train to be society-sanctioned killers in an otherwise immortal world.
On post-mortal Earth, humans live long (if not particularly passionate) lives without fear of disease, aging, or accidents. Operating independently of the governing AI (called the Thunderhead since it evolved from the cloud), scythes rely on 10 commandments, quotas, and their own moral codes to glean the population. After challenging Hon. Scythe Faraday, 16-year-olds Rowan Damisch and Citra Terranova reluctantly become his apprentices. Subjected to killcraft training, exposed to numerous executions, and discouraged from becoming allies or lovers, the two find themselves engaged in a fatal competition but equally determined to fight corruption and cruelty. The vivid and often violent action unfolds slowly, anchored in complex worldbuilding and propelled by political machinations and existential musings. Scythes’ journal entries accompany Rowan’s and Citra’s dual and dueling narratives, revealing both personal struggles and societal problems. The futuristic post–2042 MidMerican world is both dystopia and utopia, free of fear, unexpected death, and blatant racism—multiracial main characters discuss their diverse ethnic percentages rather than purity—but also lacking creativity, emotion, and purpose. Elegant and elegiac, brooding but imbued with gallows humor, Shusterman’s dark tale thrusts realistic, likable teens into a surreal situation and raises deep philosophic questions.
A thoughtful and thrilling story of life, death, and meaning. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: Nov. 29, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4424-7242-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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