Sharp’s high school drama is just as searing as his fantasy action.
This teen fantasy debut begins the Tipping Point Prophecy, a new series about awakened dragons and the end of humanity’s dominion on Earth.
In Charlottesville, Virginia, 15-year-old Chloe McClellan is a passionate nature lover who enjoys time alone at her favorite pond watching animals and contemplating life. Tenth grade at Charlottesville High proves gloomy since she’s not interested in flashy clothes or chasing boys. Life does get brighter when, during lunch, Chloe meets solemn new student Kirin Liou and proves herself an amazing runner in gym class. While Chloe is swimming at the pond one night, a freak lightning storm arrives, followed by an upheaval from beneath the water. A massive creature rises, and its chilling blue gaze pierces Chloe. After lightning strikes her, she wakes in the hospital, having been dropped off by a mysterious stranger. Unbelievably, the news of her accident boosts her popularity at school, and she’s befriended by Ezra (the handsome superjock) and Stan (the stoner). Driving home from a party, Stan and Chloe are assaulted by another storm and careen off a cliff—until something with wings and claws saves them. As Chloe’s memories of her recent traumas sharpen, she decides to research dragons. Kirin’s father, Dr. Edward Liou, helps by mentioning the Tipping Point Prophecy, which says that “when…the world begins its decline at the hands of human arrogance and neglect, the elemental powers of the earth will rise.” Debut author Sharp masterfully blends fantasy, teen drama, and a strong message of environmentalism into a white-hot narrative. Chloe, as the sarcasm-fueled outsider, wins readers’ hearts in nearly every scene; for the homecoming dance, she tries on a dress that makes her “look like a flower girl from an eighties-themed wedding.” Romance blossoms wonderfully because, once together, Chloe and Kirin “felt more like the individuals they’d always wanted to be.” Sharp also paints his fantasy elements (including the shady Daedalus Group, which researches alternative energy sources) in tantalizing brush strokes that gear up the audience for Volume 2.
Sharp’s high school drama is just as searing as his fantasy action.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-1626814257
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Diversion Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
PERSPECTIVES
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes.
The Plague has left a population divided between Elites and Ordinaries—those who have powers and those who don’t; now, an Ordinary teen fights for her life.
Paedyn Gray witnessed the king kill her father five years ago, and she’s been thieving and sleeping rough ever since, all while faking Psychic abilities. When she inadvertently saves the life of Prince Kai, she becomes embroiled in the Purging Trials, a competition to commemorate the sickness that killed most of the kingdom’s Ordinaries. Kai’s duties as the future Enforcer include eradicating any remaining Ordinaries, and these Trials are his chance to prove that he’s internalized his brutal training. But Kai can’t help but find Pae’s blue eyes, silver hair, and unabashed attitude enchanting. She likewise struggles to resist his stormy gray eyes, dark hair, and rakish behavior, even as they’re pitted against each other in the Trials and by the king himself. Scenes and concepts that are strongly reminiscent of the Hunger Games fall flat: They aren’t bolstered by the original’s heart or worldbuilding logic that would have justified a few extreme story elements. Illogical leaps and inconsistent characterizations abound, with lighthearted romantic interludes juxtaposed against genocide, child abuse, and sadism. These elements, which are not sufficiently addressed, combined with the use of ableist language, cannot be erased by any amount of romantic banter. Main characters are cued white; the supporting cast has some brown-skinned characters.
A lackluster and sometimes disturbing mishmash of overused tropes. (map) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9798987380406
Page Count: 538
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters.
Two young people save the world and all the magic in it in this series opener.
When tall, dark-haired, white-skinned Christopher Forrester goes to stay with his grandfather in Scotland, he ventures to the top of a forbidden hill and discovers astonishing magical creatures. His grandfather explains that Christopher’s family are guardians of the “way through” to the Archipelago, where the Glimourie Tree grows—the source of glimourie, or the world’s magic. Black-haired, olive-skinned Mal Arvorian, a girl from the Archipelago, is being pursued by a murderer, and she asks Christopher for help, launching them both on a wild, dangerous journey to discover why the glimourie is disappearing and how to stop it. Together with a part-nereid woman, a ratatoska, a dragon, and a Berserker, they face an odyssey of dangerous tasks to find the Immortal, the only one who can reverse the draining of magic. Like Lyra and Will from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, Mal and Christopher sacrifice their innocence for experience, meeting every challenge with depthless courage until they finally reach the maze at the heart of it all. Rundell throws myriad obstacles in her characters’ way, but she gives them tools both tangible (a casapasaran, which always points the way home, and the glamry blade, which cuts through anything) and intangible (the desire “to protect something worth protecting” and an “insistence that the world is worth loving”). Final art not seen.
An epic fantasy with timeless themes and unforgettable characters. (map, bestiary) (Fantasy. 10-16)Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593809860
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
PERSPECTIVES
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