The thin plot spreads itself across nearly 400 pages, and characters spend more time discussing what to do than actually...
Like its heroine, this series conclusion never quite comes to life.
Back in Oklahoma from New Orleans, Amelia retains partial corporeality; she can eat and manipulate objects, but she can’t make physical contact with the living—even romantic interest Joshua Mayhew. His sister, Jillian, wheedles Amelia into attending a party crashed by evil Kade and his dead cohorts, who announce they’ll kill one person a week until Amelia joins them in their grim afterworld. A failed plan to blow up the bridge that serves as gateway between worlds prompts the evil ones to speed up their timeline. Beyond vague biblical allusions, what motivates the nonliving, good or evil, remains unclear; the quasi-religious worldbuilding doesn’t reference or build on familiar myths or paradigms that resonate with readers. As the title suggests, the pace is funereal, and pausing to take in mundane events like prom squanders needed momentum. The issue of whether Amelia and Josh will finally “do it” aims to build suspense but seems borrowed from a story with lower stakes. Scenes in the evil afterworld and its gateway bring the novel to intermittent, imaginative life, but it’s not enough to keep readers’ attention.
The thin plot spreads itself across nearly 400 pages, and characters spend more time discussing what to do than actually doing it: a miss. (Paranormal romance. 13 & up)Pub Date: June 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-202681-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2013
A gentle romance set against a bummer of a backdrop.
Two teens get romantic in March 2020.
Maxine and Jonah first meet bumping into each other in the grocery store just as the world is starting to come to an end. It’s early 2020, and California’s going into lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19. Jonah’s been an anxious mess even before the deadly virus hit American shores, and Maxine (or as she prefers, Max) has been barely hanging on with a part-time gig buying other people’s groceries. The pair strike up some witty repartee over toilet paper that tips into full-on flirtation, eventually pushing them into the unlucky task of starting a relationship just as everyone’s trying to keep away from one another. As the two teens Zoom and text their way through the pandemic, class differences, mental health issues, and good old-fashioned melodrama rear their heads. The romance is sweet, and the novelty of the pandemic’s early days is effectively rendered, but readers’ mileage may vary when it comes to reliving the anxious second quarter of 2020. The authors never push the virus element too hard, smartly centering Max and Jonah’s relationship as a fairly typical getting-to-know-you courtship with a handful more speed bumps. The end result is a quiet exploration of two teens going through some heady times, the sort of read that will be appreciated, if not now, then in a year or two. Max and Jonah are presumed White.
A gentle romance set against a bummer of a backdrop. (content notes) (Romance. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-32612-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up.
A grim, modern-day manifestation of the Peter Pan tale drawn from subtle, dark elements in the original text.
Wendy Darling is a sweet, naïve 17-year-old who just moved to Chicago. One night, Peter Pan comes through her open window, expecting an empty house and instead becoming enamored with the girl inside. Wendy herself is immediately enchanted by Peter, whose boyish charm and good looks convince her to join him for a night on the town along with his spunky and snappy ex-girlfriend Tinkerbelle. During the course of a single night, Wendy runs into more of Peter’s connections, including a collection of orphans he houses off the grid, a Detective Hook eager to bring him down, and other counterparts from the source material (including the racist caricature of a Native girl, gracefully realized here as a three-dimensional young Ojibwe woman). But as the night goes on and Peter’s facade grows more transparent, the frightful truth at his center threatens the safety of everyone involved. Eschewing literal magic, Ancrum’s remix is spellbinding and psychologically compelling despite a slower-moving middle. The haunting truth surrounding Peter is well earned and disturbing, a perfect—and bleak—transformation of the character for the 21st century. Wendy is Black, Peter and Tink are White, and the supporting cast represents myriad racial and queer identities.
Dynamically reckons with the real-life ramifications of someone who refuses to grow up. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: June 22, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-250-26526-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Imprint
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021
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