A well-paced follow-up full of deliciously nightmarish creatures and scenes.
Zenith Maelstrom returns to the terrifying land of GrahBhag on a mission to find his sister and return her to her rightful age.
This sequel to The Horrible Bag of Terrible Things (2023) finds the sibling duo once again inside the dangerous and disturbing world of GrahBhag. Though Zenith returns only to find Apogee, who was “supernaturally shrunken and regressed” from 14 to 4, he quickly realizes that he’s an outlaw, wanted for the pair’s earlier killing of the Great Wurm. He’s put on trial and sentenced to stay indefinitely in Eternity Tower. The bizarre, topsy-turvy tower tricks and torments its prisoners, robbing Zenith of all hope of escape. Renzetti’s imaginative world and its creatures are delightfully dark and twisted. Zenith’s bizarre yet helpful relationships with some of the oddball inmates of the prison make for the most compelling parts of the story. Kreeble, the gargoyle who helped the siblings in the first book, plays a disappointingly more limited role this time. Much of the story unfolds in the tower (and features some particularly horrifying events); readers will likely miss the varied and wild settings of GrahBhag itself. This volume ends with a cliffhanger, clearly setting up for the next installment: Though much is left unanswered, there’s plenty here to leave readers clamoring for the third book. Human characters are minimally described and racially ambiguous.
A well-paced follow-up full of deliciously nightmarish creatures and scenes. (Horror. 8-12)Pub Date: July 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593519554
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone.
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.
Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.
Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-79023-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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