Lively supernatural investigations with humor and heart.
Following the (impermanent) death of her eccentric employer, R.F. Jackaby, Abigail Rook, much to her dismay, inherited his ability to see energy and emotional auras.
In this stand-alone set in the Jackaby series world, Abigail must now take the lead in their supernatural detective work. Most unusually, the New England city of New Fiddleham includes a rift to the supernatural world. Many paranormals—goblins, trolls, elves, fairies, and their like—have moved in, necessitating a Paranormal Division of police, for which Jackaby and Abigail consult. But while Abigail was cloistered for months, training as the new Seer, supernatural crime and human-paranormal tensions soared. Though feeling decidedly unready, Abigail must use her gift to trace a series of kidnappings and murders. Things grow especially bleak when her prospective sister-in-law, who can shape shift into dog form, is implicated in a murder and Abigail’s fiance, Charlie Barker, is kidnapped. Like Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood & Co. series, this book expertly blends witty banter, sympathetic, struggling characters, descriptive worldbuilding, and sometimes-gory supernatural crimes with all-too-believable motives. Quick-moving action and creative supernatural elements will hold readers’ attention, though characters’ memory-loss incidents might lead to some plot confusion, and the denouement feels rushed. Human-presenting characters read White; Charlie has a “faint Slavic accent.”
Lively supernatural investigations with humor and heart. (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2023
ISBN: 9781643752402
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale.
A 12-year-old girl living in a kingdom ruled by a mysterious queen dreams of attaining her sport’s highest prize.
Legacy Petrin lives and works in the financially strapped orphanage in the provinces run by her father and rises early every day to practice tennis with her old racket. After her best friend, Van, excitedly tells her about a scholarship competition for a spot at an esteemed academy and the opportunity to try out for the national championships, Legacy runs away to the city to compete. After winning, she learns there is still much she doesn’t know: The players are not just proficient in tennis, but also have magical skills that they use to their advantage. Legacy befriends Pippa, a knowledgeable girl from an elite tennis family, and acquires a builder, or coach, Javi. With Pippa and Javi at her side, Legacy makes her way through the competition, despite sabotage attempts, learning secrets about her own family along the way. Legacy is a strong character, and the secondary characters also have interesting backstories. The storyline is reminiscent of other dystopian stories, but centering tennis—with lively descriptions of matches that give a strong sense of the sport—is an unusual touch. Most characters are white, although Javi is brown-skinned, and some other characters of color are mentioned.
Magic, tennis action, and family secrets are woven into an original coming-of-age tale. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949520-03-3
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Thought-provoking, as always from Doctorow.
Online gaming and real life collide when a teen discovers the hidden economies and injustices that hide among seemingly innocent pixels.
Anda, a shy, overweight gamer and a recent transplant to Flagstaff, Arizona, is beyond excited when a guest speaker in one of her classes invites her to join in playing a massive multiplayer online role-playing game called “Coarsegold.” With her parents’ approval, Anda joins the presenters’ guild, a group of girls playing the game as girl avatars. Once in “Coarsegold,” Anda—known online as Kalidestroyer—is confronted by another guild member named Lucy, who asks her if she’d be interested in earning “real cash.” When she accepts, she’s pulled into a world of real-money economies where workers “play” the game, garnering items they can then sell for actual money to other players. Doctorow takes a subject that many people probably haven’t considered (unless they’ve already read his For the Win, 2010) and uses the fictional frame to drive home a hard truth: that many of the games we play or items we buy have unseen people tied to them, people who have their own struggles. Through Wong’s captivating illustrations and Doctorow’s heady prose, readers are left with a story that’s both wholly satisfying as a work of fiction and serious food for thought about the real-life ramifications of playing in an intangible world.
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59643-658-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: First Second
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
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