Plenty of thrills alongside thoughtful, poignant explorations of love and loss.
This sequel to Walking in Two Worlds (2021) returns readers to the virtual and real worlds in which a teen girl navigates grief, confronts those who wish to undermine her, and grows in self-confidence.
Picking up soon after Anishinaabe teen Bugz has lost her older brother, Waawaate, to cancer, the book immediately plunges readers back into the action. Bugz is officially dating Feng, the Uighur boy who lives on the reservation with his doctor aunt, but in the depths of her grief, she spends most of her time in the virtual realm of the Floraverse with her latest creation, a Waawaate-bot. Meanwhile, the hostile players who ganged up on Bugz in the Floraverse and even destroyed the sacred Thunderbird’s Nest on the Rez have become the target of the Waawaate-bot, who grows increasingly powerful, menacing, and out of control, crossing worlds in ways that should not be possible. Seeing the terrifying impact of her well-intentioned creation forces Bugz to look honestly at how she is coping with her brother’s loss, especially when Feng receives shocking news from China. The story also follows Waawaate as his soul travels Gaagigewekinaa, or the Everlasting Road, in the afterlife. Kinew (Anishinaabe) presents readers with another well-paced novel set in a vividly realized world in which young people create new paths that are grounded in community and cultural continuity.
Plenty of thrills alongside thoughtful, poignant explorations of love and loss. (Anishinaabe terms and pronunciation guide, author’s note, resources) (Science fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2023
ISBN: 9780735269033
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms!
Hotshot pilot Spensa Nightshade completes her apotheosis in this series closer, as human rebels and their alien allies mount a climactic assault on the galactic empire.
Having progressed from eating rats to being a cytonic superwarrior, Spensa is bonded by ties of loyalty and lust to former Skyward Flight leader, now Defiant Defense Force admiral, Jorgen—and also to a traumatized, planet-killing, interdimensional delver named Chet. Spensa would be well on her way to full-blown pacifism if the Superiority’s war of extermination against humans were not ramping up to a newly active phase. Nothing for it but a massive space battle, complete with dogfights, huge explosions, feints, betrayals, and tragic sacrifices…not to mention a swarm of ravenous, vacuum-dwelling vastworms eager to chow down on both sides. Though slowed by Spensa’s and others’ wrestling with conflicting impulses and weighing moral imperatives, the plot features more than enough large- and small-scale action set pieces to please space-opera fans. Better yet, the deliciously expansive cast includes not only humans and AIs but a broad array of aliens and semi-aliens from blue-skinned humanoids and a furry, haiku-reciting, fox-gerbil samurai with a (wait for it) laser sword to sentient crystals and empathic slugs. “The more different types of people we got into the flight, the stronger it would be,” Spensa reflects, and indeed, it’s collective action that proves decisive in the end.
A grand finale, presented with a touch light enough to buoy all the self-actualization. Also: giant space worms! (Science fiction. 12-15)Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780593309711
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
SEEN & HEARD
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