Plenty of zombie action and queer romance but disappointingly little emotional bite.
In 2030, twins brave zombies to escape their father’s violence.
Seventeen-year-old Eira Helvig—a self-described “giantess” at 6 feet, 6 inches tall—and her brother, Soren, planned to leave their Central Washington homestead, knowing their father, a “paranoid, racist, homophobic, xenophobic” doomsday prepper, wouldn’t accept their queerness. When a strain of toxoplasmosis begins turning everyone into zombies, however, they’re stuck sheltering at home. But after their father starts killing people who enter their land, Eira and Soren escape on horseback, leaving their mother and younger sister behind. Though Eira can vanquish zombies (thanks to her Renaissance faire swordsmanship), she can’t outrun them. Luckily, she and Soren are coached by Racer, a Special Olympics triathlon champion with Down syndrome who created the titular club. As they encounter zombies and renegades across a corpse-littered landscape, ZARC gains new members, including nonbinary Cosmo, to whom Eira is immediately attracted. Can the survivors evade feeding zombies to reunite with their siblings at a safe haven? Despite the suspenseful premise, the underdeveloped secondary cast diminishes potentially powerful themes, such as the dissonance of loving a bigoted parent. While Eira and Cosmo’s physical attraction is vividly portrayed, their rushed emotional bond is less satisfying, Soren, who quickly falls for a boy called Navinder, wryly comments that “queers move fast at the end of the world.” Eira and Soren read white; secondary characters add ethnic diversity to the cast.
Plenty of zombie action and queer romance but disappointingly little emotional bite. (Paranormal suspense. 14-18)Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2024
ISBN: 9781524771041
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging
Audrey Rose Wadsworth, 17, would rather perform autopsies in her uncle’s dark laboratory than find a suitable husband, as is the socially acceptable rite of passage for a young, white British lady in the late 1800s.
The story immediately brings Audrey into a fractious pairing with her uncle’s young assistant, Thomas Cresswell. The two engage in predictable rounds of “I’m smarter than you are” banter, while Audrey’s older brother, Nathaniel, taunts her for being a girl out of her place. Horrific murders of prostitutes whose identities point to associations with the Wadsworth estate prompt Audrey to start her own investigation, with Thomas as her sidekick. Audrey’s narration is both ponderous and polemical, as she sees her pursuit of her goals and this investigation as part of a crusade for women. She declares that the slain aren’t merely prostitutes but “daughters and wives and mothers,” but she’s also made it a point to deny any alignment with the profiled victims: “I am not going as a prostitute. I am simply blending in.” Audrey also expresses a narrow view of her desired gender role, asserting that “I was determined to be both pretty and fierce,” as if to say that physical beauty and liking “girly” things are integral to feminism. The graphic descriptions of mutilated women don’t do much to speed the pace.
Perhaps a more genuinely enlightened protagonist would have made this debut more engaging . (Historical thriller. 15-18)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-316-27349-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Jimmy Patterson/Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
