Sleator devotes his considerable talents to a horror story this time. High-school student Nick and his mother live in near-poverty. Because his mother closely monitors use of their home phone, Nick buys a cell phone to talk more frequently to his girlfriend. But this phone brings weird and threatening calls and proves to have a direct connection to Hell. Nick’s life changes—and not for the better. The pitiful and self-pitying Nick, with his limited experience and lack of worldly knowledge, makes a great pawn for the predatory adults he meets when using the cell phone. The many unpleasant characters and the need for a big-time suspension of disbelief (a direct connection to where?) are countered by a dark, involving and fast-moving plot that surprises, shocks and—eventually—terrifies. Sleator cleverly uses Nick’s weaknesses to paint him into a corner, then pulls off a horrifying (but satisfactory) ending. Gross and yucky episodes, a suspense-filled plot and touches of macabre humor will appeal to both horror fans and reluctant readers. (Fiction. 13-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-8109-5479-6
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
A world ruled by Hitler ought to evoke at least a smidgen of horror, but this overstuffed slog overwhelms the horrifyingly...
Dark secrets abound in the last human enclave two generations after the Nazis created vampirism and took over the world.
Sophie lives in Haven, the Pacific island nation where humanity retreated after the truce with the undead Third Reich (if there were prior residents, they're invisible in mostly occidental Haven). Sophie adores her secret vampire boyfriend, Val, to whom she smells "intoxicating." Val hides secrets of his own: as a human, he was engaged to Sophie's grandmother; later, he had a fling with Sophie's mother. More important than Val's incestuous affections is his knowledge of who is murdering everyone Sophie loves. He won't tell her, so Sophie's willing to investigate even into the Third Reich, if she must. Bramble’s New York—Gestapo-controlled, vampire-overrun—shows no sign of the evils to be expected of even a human Führer, aside from one appallingly unconcerned mention that nearly all Jews have been murdered. This book’s moral compass is seriously skewed. As Sophie adventures with cinematic intensity, she knows she's unlike the prejudiced Havenites, for she comprehends morality in shades of gray. Why, this sophisticated miss understands that human misdeeds in the fight for survival against total annihilation are comparable to the horrors of Auschwitz, an equation drawn with a straight narrative face.
A world ruled by Hitler ought to evoke at least a smidgen of horror, but this overstuffed slog overwhelms the horrifyingly real vileness of Nazism with vampiric banalities. (Science fiction. 13-15)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63079-017-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Switch/Capstone
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Despite the potential whimsy of a circus adventure narrated by a shape-shifting mare, this more closely resembles a brutal,...
Flo and her friends are but poor, lost circus performers—who shape-shift into animals and try to evade governmental capture.
Newly turned 16, orphaned shifter Flo is dreading her first circus performance. Alas for her, it's not optional; all of the shifter children who live with the circus must perform regularly as soon as they reach that age. Flo must take a turn like all the others, so after a false start, she takes the stage—not as a girl but as a magnificent mare. Like her boyfriend, Jett the bear, or her nemesis, Pru the tiger, Flo becomes an animal at will. In a modern world of cars and DVD players, the circus shifters live almost medievally, bound under the unkind leadership of the elders, three middle-aged lion shifters. Flo knows that if she leaves, she'll be vulnerable to hunters, government-funded paramilitary forces that are the modern legacy of sworn enemies who have been murdering shifters since time immemorial. So she tolerates the cruelty of her peers, learns to jump through a flaming hoop, and almost has hope for the future when disaster strikes. In a spare first-person, present-tense narration, Flo takes readers through a swoony romance with a massive body count.
Despite the potential whimsy of a circus adventure narrated by a shape-shifting mare, this more closely resembles a brutal, angst-drenched dystopia à la Veronica Roth's Divergent (2011) than anything else . (Fantasy. 13-15)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-63450-201-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Sky Pony Press
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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