Will send readers through a twisty labyrinth to a satisfying conclusion.
Claire’s summer becomes a mind-bending, life-changing mystery.
It’s 1993, and Claire is trapped in small-town Indianola, Texas, spending the summer caring for her ailing Grammy. Homesick and missing her new boyfriend, Claire is eager to leave harsh, critical Grammy’s sweltering house and get to know her new friends better: charismatic Julie, whom Claire just can’t stop thinking about, and the perky, old-fashioned, and sometimes unnerving Audrey. When a strange monster appears—a small, alligatorlike creature covered in fur that speaks to Claire and turns out to be just the first of many monsters that inhabit the town—and her memory starts slipping, Claire realizes Indianola has hidden, dangerous secrets woven in its history. Alternating between Claire’s and Julie’s perspectives, the mystery is slow to unveil itself, intermingling elements of supernatural horror and an idyllic, rural summer to ratchet up the tension. Likewise, Julie’s insider view as a local who works for her family’s monster exterminator business gives the mystery an extra twist. As Claire delves deeper into Indianola’s past, new family secrets emerge and change everything. The slow-burn lesbian romance, convoluted family mysteries, and the paranormal aspects of memory loss and the nature of reality will hook readers. Claire and Audrey are cued as white; Julie and her family are Latinx.
Will send readers through a twisty labyrinth to a satisfying conclusion. (Paranormal mystery. 12-adult)Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4608-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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
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
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