A chaotic fever dream that will evoke strong responses from readers.
Isla and Renata Soler, outcasts in high society, attempt to polish their reputations at finishing school, but the cost of perfection might be too much.
Seventeen-year-old Isla and 20-year-old Renata were raised by their abuela to be fierce and independent. In their era, which evokes the early 20th century, girls wearing trousers are frowned upon and being from new money brings sneers. Abuela believes that world-renowned Alarie House will give her brown-skinned granddaughters the social clout they need. Their first night at the finishing school, Isla sees something deeply unsettling and, wounded by Renata’s skeptical response, flees for home. When Renata returns from Alarie, she’s eerily changed, like “a girl written for the stage instead of real life,” alarmingly vacant but with terrifying glimpses of rage beneath the artificial veneer. Then Renata vanishes, and Isla embarks on a quest to discover what happened to her sister. This novel, which has a strongly gothic mood, gets off to a strong start. Soon after Isla returns to Alarie in search of answers, the novel makes an abrupt shift in tone into surrealism, with worldbuilding that sophisticated readers will understand offers overarching metaphors for femininity. The book also has excellent representation of an intersex character, an element that further interrogates “what it means to be a girl, much less the right kind of girl.”
A chaotic fever dream that will evoke strong responses from readers. (author’s note) (Horror. 14-adult)Pub Date: May 28, 2024
ISBN: 9781250869630
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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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