Guaranteed to fly off the shelves.
Cliques writ large take over in the first of a projected dystopian trilogy.
The remnant population of post-apocalyptic Chicago intended to cure civilization’s failures by structuring society into five “factions,” each dedicated to inculcating a specific virtue. When Tris, secretly a forbidden “Divergent,” has to choose her official faction in her 16th year, she rejects her selfless Abnegation upbringing for the Dauntless, admiring their reckless bravery. But the vicious initiation process reveals that her new tribe has fallen from its original ideals, and that same rot seems to be spreading… Aside from the preposterous premise, this gritty, paranoid world is built with careful details and intriguing scope. The plot clips along at an addictive pace, with steady jolts of brutal violence and swoony romance. Despite the constant assurance that Tris is courageous, clever and kind, her own first-person narration displays a blank personality. No matter; all the “good” characters adore her and the “bad” are spiteful and jealous. Fans snared by the ratcheting suspense will be unable to resist speculating on their own factional allegiance; a few may go on to ponder the questions of loyalty and identity beneath the façade of thrilling adventure.
Guaranteed to fly off the shelves. (Science fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: May 3, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202402-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
Incredibly immersive and utterly unique.
On a train headed to boarding school, a girl suddenly finds herself in another world where time functions differently.
After the sudden death of her father, 16-year-old Margo’s depression swerves into rebellion. But as she’s returning to her Dublin boarding school, something miraculous happens. Suddenly she’s in a completely different train car, and someone’s sitting in her seat. Moon, as he’s called, is an itinerant salesman—and he decides to help Margo. Maybe this strange girl can help fund his way out of a life shortened by skipshock: the deadly toll that constant traveling between worlds takes on the body. Each world has a different number of hours in its days; the days in Northern worlds are shorter, causing accelerated aging, while Southern worlds have days that are nearly as long as Earth’s. Semper, the ruling world, is Southern, and they’ve outlawed traveling for anyone but salesmen. But Margo’s arrival from Earth—a sealed world no one was aware of—indicates that there must be a rupture, which sparks interest in a universe on the brink of a war. In this duology opener, Margo and Moon must try to stop tyrannical Semper. Their journey is one of rollicking adventure, ever-present danger, and simmering romance. Readers will burn through the pages as they traverse gorgeous, fully realized worlds replete with their own varied dramas. Margo reads white and Moon is a member of the nomadic Lunati, who are often treated with suspicion.
Incredibly immersive and utterly unique. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781536228816
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Walker US/Candlewick
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
An atmospheric series opener well suited for a cold winter’s night but marred by careless tropes.
An orphaned thief finds herself on an unexpected journey to meet her destiny.
Seventeen-year-old Valeria has worked as an operative for the Thieves Guild since she lost her family in the Freeze of Ludminka. The freeze cut off access to lovite, the country’s most precious mineral resource, and left everyone in the mining village frozen in place except for her. When a guild mission goes awry, Valeria is intercepted by a man named Ivan who claims to be harboring her best friend, Alik, whom she had presumed to be dead following a mission a year before. Ivan promises her a safe reunion with Alik if she will join his party on a quest back to Ludminka to penetrate the mountain containing unharvested lovite deposits. Little does Valeria know that she is the key to entering the frozen environs of the mountain and that she will have a pivotal role to play in the war of the Brother Gods, the Bright and the Pale, who have awakened from their slumber to prepare for battle with one another. The icy atmosphere of this Russian-inflected debut novel is vividly rendered, and the briskly paced plot moves the story along through multiple twists, turns, and betrayals. There is some queer representation among White Valeria’s compatriots; unfortunately, the representation of the brown-skinned Adamanian people, adept with explosives and ruled by a khan who takes concubines for his harem, evokes Islamophobic stereotypes.
An atmospheric series opener well suited for a cold winter’s night but marred by careless tropes. (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: March 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-06-287150-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Quill Tree Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2021
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