Skip.
To vampires, werewolves, zombies, pixies, merpeople, angels, demons and fairies, we can now add gargoyles.
Guillaume has been affixed to a Montréal church since the 1940s, paying scant attention to the doings of the humans below, when a girl oozing "essence" is attacked and, astonishingly, awakens Guillaume and his three gargoyle companions, who revert to their original, human forms. Aude, 16, is predictably freaked out by the attack and the strange voices, chanting and drumming she hears in her head, but she shakes it off so she can concentrate on her band, Lucid Pill. Glacially, Launier reveals the gargoyles' back story (created 800 years ago, they are the protectors of a line of female witches, or "essentialists," thought to have died out) and current dilemma (the Iroquois "Prophecy of the Seventh Generation" tells of a time of apocalypse, when "stone monsters"—not the gargoyles, different stone monsters—rampage and other bad stuff happens). The narration alternates between Guillaume's past tense and Aude's present tense, as they agonizingly figure out what is happening (kind of) and realize they love each other. Frustratingly, Aude's rejection of her French heritage (she prefers to be called Odd) goes unexplored, along with numerous other plot threads. The promise of the compelling opening chapter goes unfulfilled, as the debut author struggles with voice (would an 800-year-old French gargoyle really say "you guys" and "anyways"?), sentence structure and storytelling.
Skip. (Paranormal romance. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3074-5
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Flux
Review Posted Online: Aug. 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2012
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli.
For two teenagers, a small town’s annual cautionary ritual becomes both a life- and a death-changing experience.
On the second Wednesday in June, every eighth grader in Amber Springs, Pennsylvania, gets a black shirt, the name and picture of a teen killed the previous year through reckless behavior—and the silent treatment from everyone in town. Like many of his classmates, shy, self-conscious Robbie “Worm” Tarnauer has been looking forward to Dead Wed as a day for cutting loose rather than sober reflection…until he finds himself talking to a strange girl or, as she would have it, “spectral maiden,” only he can see or touch. Becca Finch is as surprised and confused as Worm, only remembering losing control of her car on an icy slope that past Christmas Eve. But being (or having been, anyway) a more outgoing sort, she sees their encounter as a sign that she’s got a mission. What follows, in a long conversational ramble through town and beyond, is a day at once ordinary yet rich in discovery and self-discovery—not just for Worm, but for Becca too, with a climactic twist that leaves both ready, or readier, for whatever may come next. Spinelli shines at setting a tongue-in-cheek tone for a tale with serious underpinnings, and as in Stargirl (2000), readers will be swept into the relationship that develops between this adolescent odd couple. Characters follow a White default.
Characters to love, quips to snort at, insights to ponder: typical Spinelli. (Fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-30667-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2021
Fast-moving and intriguing though inconsistent on multiple fronts.
Kids endure rigorous competition aboard a spaceship.
When Babel Communications invites 10 teens to participate in “the most serious space exploration known to mankind,” Emmett signs on. Surely it’s the jackpot: they’ll each receive $50,000 every month for life, and Emmett’s mother will get a kidney transplant, otherwise impossible for poor people. They head through space toward the planet Eden, where they’ll mine a substance called nyxia, “the new black gold.” En route, the corporation forces them into brutal competition with one another—fighting, running through violent virtual reality racecourses, and manipulating nyxia, which can become almost anything. It even forms language-translating facemasks, allowing Emmett, a black boy from Detroit, to communicate with competitors from other countries. Emmett's initial understanding of his own blackness may throw readers off, but a black protagonist in outer space is welcome. Awkward moments in the smattering of black vernacular are rare. Textual descriptions can be scanty; however, copious action and a reality TV atmosphere (the scoreboard shows regularly) make the pace flow. Emmett’s first-person voice is immediate and innocent: he realizes that Babel’s ruthless and coldblooded but doesn’t apply that to his understanding of what’s really going on. Readers will guess more than he does, though most confirmation waits for the next installment—this ends on a cliffhanger.
Fast-moving and intriguing though inconsistent on multiple fronts. (Science fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-55679-1
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
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