In the icy-cold weeks after Christmas, Alissa’s normal adolescent problems are overlaid with supernatural mysteries. On her annual Christmas pilgrimage to her father’s grave, Alissa falls through the snow to the tomb of a dead boy with a plant growing from his chest. When Alissa, magically compelled, plucks and eats the plant, she finds herself afflicted with visions. She sees people walking down the street whom nobody else can see, people who turn into ravens and fly across the sky. Alissa’s rotten ex-boyfriend is also affected by Alissa’s new powers, and becomes a preternatural stalker, obsessed with Alissa and blessed—or cursed—with the ability to find her. Only her best friend Evelin can help Alissa hold herself together in an increasingly surreal world. Alissa’s story is told in alternating chapters by different characters, and the down-to-earth perspectives of Evelin and Alissa’s stepfather keep this lyrical tale grounded until the satisfying and surprising conclusion. (Fantasy. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-439-72452-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Chicken House/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors.
A biracial high school student questions the truth surrounding her sister’s disappearance and unexplained return.
Sixteen-year-old Cassandra “Casey” Cureton despises her older sister, Sutton. The girls have a White mom and Black dad, and unlike her sister, Casey keeps her hair natural. She prefers the company of best friend Ruth, who is Black, and her online music fandom community. Dedicated cheer captain, flat-iron enthusiast, and rising senior Sutton is a mean girl with a convincingly sweet public persona. When Sutton goes missing on their last day of classes, their parents rally their affluent suburban Seattle-area community to band together and bring Sutton home. Weeks later, she is found physically unharmed but unable to remember anything. While her parents adjust to Sutton’s bittersweet homecoming, Casey realizes there’s something deeply unnerving about the sister who has returned—and it has nothing to do with her amnesia. As Casey races to unmask Sutton’s secrets, she discovers how her paternal family legacy protected Sutton, shedding new light on the powerful bonds of blood. Debut author Meade offers an intriguing, emotionally resonant novel wrapped in supernatural realism. Guided by layered themes of generational inheritance, Black identity, and the reclamation of history, the first-person narrative is told through Casey’s point of view with flashbacks from Sutton. Twists abound, but readers may crave a fuller ending than the action-packed but quick resolution.
A gripping portrait of fractured sisterhood, reverberating traumas, and the triumphs of omniscient ancestors. (author’s note) (Speculative fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 27, 2023
ISBN: 9781728264479
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2023
A bold and bloody series opener.
Dark academia meets deadly magic competition in this thrilling fantasy romp that centers on complex Black Canadian characters.
Seventeen-year-old August Black is lost and lonely, especially now that her brother, Jules, is away at Kingston, Ontario’s Queen’s University. Their father, who has Trinidadian roots, has been working long hours, largely absent following their mother’s sudden disappearance. Depressed, August drinks and isolates herself. But after Jules goes missing too, leaving behind an alarming note (“Monsters are real”), August becomes determined to find him. She accepts an invitation from “hot librarian jock hybrid” Virgil Hawthorne, who witnesses her impressive knife-throwing skills, to join the secretive Learners’ Society, which offers her the opportunity to find answers about Jules. Its mission is to bond with and control people who have mutations that turn them into monsters. They’ll compete in a cutthroat monster-bonding competition that’s Virgil’s last chance to bond before transforming irrevocably into a monster and being locked away forever. August is a sympathetically flawed protagonist, whose journey from directionless loner to empowered champion is well-developed and compelling. As an outsider to the Learners’ Society, her perspective offers an accessible way for readers to learn the worldbuilding lore. Through the metaphor of monsters, Sambury explores salient questions about belonging, justice, mass incarceration, the line between revolution and terrorism, and racism and systemic inequality. The supporting cast is racially diverse.
A bold and bloody series opener. (author’s note, content warning, map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781665957366
Page Count: 592
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2025
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