Boilerplate apocalyptic fodder. With kissing.
An unusual plague sweeps across Scotland in this trilogy opener.
In the opening pages, 12-year-old Callie Tanzer is being experimented on by scientists in biohazard suits in an underground bunker. She dies after being consumed by fire. Now she’s a ghost witnessing the spread of a sickness that is soon let loose into the wider population of Scotland and beyond. Being a ghost is frustrating, but Callie’s determined to find her family, including her half brother, Kai, who has been obsessed with locating her after she disappeared a year ago. Enter Sharona “Shay” McAllister, who contacts Kai with information about Callie’s disappearance (Shay conveniently has a photographic memory—it’s been a year, after all). It’s insta-sparks for Kai and Shay, but there’s no time for character development, because the epidemic, dubbed the Aberdeen flu, starts killing off friends and neighbors. Luckily, Kai and his mother, an epidemiological researcher, are immune. Shay gets sick and survives, but survival comes with creepy abilities. Survivors are now being hunted, and Callie is consumed by the need for revenge. Shay and Kai fall in love laughably quickly, and the plague’s origins take a back seat to navel-gazing and improbable plot twists. All main characters seem to be white. Fans of the genre deserve better than this.
Boilerplate apocalyptic fodder. With kissing. (Dystopia. 12-18)Pub Date: July 9, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-58089-989-5
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Charlesbridge Teen
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2019
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come.
A heady blend of courtly double-crossing, Faerie lore, and toxic attraction swirls together in the sequel to The Cruel Prince (2018).
Five months after engineering a coup, human teen Jude is starting to feel the strain of secretly controlling King Cardan and running his Faerie kingdom. Jude’s self-loathing and anger at the traumatic events of her childhood (her Faerie “dad” killed her parents, and Faerie is not a particularly easy place even for the best-adjusted human) drive her ambition, which is tempered by her desire to make the world she loves and hates a little fairer. Much of the story revolves around plotting (the Queen of the Undersea wants the throne; Jude’s Faerie father wants power; Jude’s twin, Taryn, wants her Faerie betrothed by her side), but the underlying tension—sexual and political—between Jude and Cardan also takes some unexpected twists. Black’s writing is both contemporary and classic; her world is, at this point, intensely well-realized, so that some plot twists seem almost inevitable. Faerie is a strange place where immortal, multihued, multiformed denizens can’t lie but can twist everything; Jude—who can lie—is an outlier, and her first-person, present-tense narration reveals more than she would choose. With curly dark brown hair, Jude and Taryn are never identified by race in human terms.
A rare second volume that surpasses the first, with, happily, more intrigue and passion still to come. (map) (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-31035-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2018
A thrilling alien-invasion novel based on a chillingly nefarious premise.
When a worldwide rain results in alien plant life taking over the Earth, three Canadian teens are the only ones strong enough to resist the invasion.
Anaya, Seth, and Petra have always felt different from their peers on their British Columbia island. Anaya has severe allergies that give her acne and perpetual congestion. Seth is a foster child with scars running up and down his arms. Although pretty and popular, Petra is allergic to water. None of the teens think much about the others until strange black plants begin sprouting all over town after a day of heavy rain—that somehow doesn’t trigger Petra’s water allergy. When the plants turn carnivorous, Petra, Anaya, and Seth are the only ones able to withstand their strange perfumes and their acidic interiors, and they realize they must have something more in common. And then Anaya’s botanist father reveals that the plants came from another planet—and they are in the process of colonizing the Earth. In this fast-paced thriller, Oppel spins a richly drawn, incredibly fascinating world. Beginning with the brilliantly unique premise of a botanical alien invasion, the plot unravels satisfyingly, building readers’ curiosity by creating 10 new questions for every answer given. The book’s one significant weakness is its lack of diversity. Other than Anaya, whose name implies she might be South Asian, the other characters present white.
A thrilling alien-invasion novel based on a chillingly nefarious premise. (Science fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: March 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7300-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2020
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