A food-for-thought dystopian with a strong feminist message.
After a daring escape from Innovations Academy with the help of Leandra, the headmaster’s wife, Mena, Sydney, Marcella, Brynn, and Annalise set out to destroy the architects of their repression in the follow-up to Girls With Sharp Sticks (2019).
They’re free for now, but the headmaster will soon be looking for them. After all, they’re worth millions to the school and, its investors. Leandra enrolls Mena and Sydney in Ridgeview Prep in Connecticut to root out the son of an investor who may have the power to stop Innovations. To their dismay, the girls discover that misogyny and sexism are rampant in the outside world, but they could have an ally in the form of a talented hacker named Raven. However, it soon occurs to Mena that they may have jumped from the frying pan into the fire. Spot-on observations about society’s problematic, repressive, and violent treatment of women and girls pepper the narrative, and the powerful message that women should support and love one another is bolstered by a female-centric cast who unfailingly have each other’s backs. This entry lacks some of its predecessor’s spark, but a few twists keep the pages turning and leave plenty of loose threads for future installments. Mena, Annalise, and Brynn seem to be white, Sydney is black, Marcella has brown skin, and there’s some diversity in secondary characters. There is a same-sex romance.
A food-for-thought dystopian with a strong feminist message. (Dystopian. 13-18)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2616-07
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Simon Pulse/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A lukewarm thriller.
In England, a group of teenagers tries to stay alive when a long weekend in an abandoned castle goes wrong.
When Bessie and her friends decide to join a party their classmate Allegra is throwing in her family’s abandoned castle before it’s converted into apartments, they think the biggest issues they’ll face are making it there before a big storm hits and keeping their plans secret from their parents and teachers. Once they arrive at the castle, however, Bessie and best friend Kashvi discover menacing graffiti and evidence that someone has been staying in the cellar. They also learn that protestors from the nearby village are angry about the development plans for the castle—one of them even argues that it would be better to burn it down. A handful of classmates manage to get there before the storm gets too severe. But when the teens wake up the next day to discover one of their own dead, and the storm makes it impossible for them to leave, they quickly realize that they’re in danger. But is the killer one of the members of the Facebook protestors’ group…or one of their own? Despite the book’s intriguing setup, the prose is dominated by repetitive conversations that convey little substance. Still, readers may still find themselves propelled forward by a need to discover the identity of the murderer. The central cast is racially diverse.
A lukewarm thriller. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593704080
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
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