A fascinating journey for fun and introspection—just like the inspirational tarot.
See what your cards reveal....
Before parting for different colleges, four friends spend their last summer together on a road trip through California, with a deck of tarot cards deciding their specific route. At their first stop, they discover that the unique deck is actually the last work of a prestigious artist. He hid the four missing cards, and the deck’s owner can only locate them by deciphering clues. The friends—brash, anxious Amelia, who inherited the deck from her beloved grandmother; Amelia’s best friend, Chase, the analytical planner; Logan, Chase’s athletic boyfriend; Cleo, the maybe-nonbinary artist—alter their trip in order to complete this elaborate scavenger hunt. The story follows the symbolic journey of the tarot’s major arcana, one of setting out and discovering truths, facing obstacles, and eventually arriving at deeper understanding. Sergi has folded the concept of the tarot into the structure of the book itself in a creative and entertaining way, as readers follow a choose-your-own-adventure style of page turns. Although some destinations are predetermined, each decision shapes the journey and the ultimate outcome. For those less familiar with the tarot, the book helpfully includes descriptions of card meanings as well as various perspectives on how to read them. Amelia is Jewish, Chase seems to be White by default, multiracial Logan is Trinidadian, and Cleo is cued as biracial (Japanese/White).
A fascinating journey for fun and introspection—just like the inspirational tarot. (reading guide, personality profiles) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 7, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-7624-7141-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Running Press Teens
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter.
After a Nigerian British girl goes off to an exclusive boarding school that seems to prey on less-privileged students, she discovers there might be some truth behind an urban legend.
Ife Adebola joins the Urban Achievers scholarship program at pricey, high-pressure Nithercott School, arriving shortly after a student called Leon mysteriously disappeared. Gossip says he’s a victim of the glowing-eyed Changing Man who targets the lonely, leaving them changed. Ife doesn’t believe in the myth, but amid the stresses of Nithercott’s competitive, privileged, majority-white environment, where she is constantly reminded of her state school background, she does miss her friends and family. When Malika, a fellow Black scholarship student, disappears and then returns, acting strangely devoid of personality, Ife worries the Changing Man is real—and that she’s next. Ife joins forces with classmate Bijal and Benny, Leon’s younger brother, to uncover the truth about who the Changing Man is and what he wants. Culminating in a detailed, gory, and extended climactic battle, this verbose thriller tempts readers with a nefarious mystery involving racial and class-based violence but never quite lives up to its potential and peters out thematically by its explosive finale. However, this debut offers highly visually evocative and eerie descriptions of characters and events and will appeal to fans of creature horror, social commentary, and dark academia.
A descriptive and atmospheric paranormal social thriller that could be a bit tighter. (Thriller. 14-18)Pub Date: Sept. 26, 2023
ISBN: 9781250868138
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in.
Black is back with another dark tale of Faerie, this one set in Faerie and launching a new trilogy.
Jude—broken, rebuilt, fueled by anger and a sense of powerlessness—has never recovered from watching her adoptive Faerie father murder her parents. Human Jude (whose brown hair curls and whose skin color is never described) both hates and loves Madoc, whose murderous nature is true to his Faerie self and who in his way loves her. Brought up among the Gentry, Jude has never felt at ease, but after a decade, Faerie has become her home despite the constant peril. Black’s latest looks at nature and nurture and spins a tale of court intrigue, bloodshed, and a truly messed-up relationship that might be the saving of Jude and the titular prince, who, like Jude, has been shaped by the cruelties of others. Fierce and observant Jude is utterly unaware of the currents that swirl around her. She fights, plots, even murders enemies, but she must also navigate her relationship with her complex family (human, Faerie, and mixed). This is a heady blend of Faerie lore, high fantasy, and high school drama, dripping with description that brings the dangerous but tempting world of Faerie to life.
Black is building a complex mythology; now is a great time to tune in. (Fantasy. 14-adult)Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-316-31027-7
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2017
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