Will delight shippers and whet fans’ appetites.
This volume containing two novellas from the world of These Violent Delights presents new mysteries featuring familiar faces.
In A Foul Thing, Roma Montagov and Juliette Cai’s life of wedded bliss in Zhouzhuang township is disrupted by a ghost from their past. It’s 1931, 4 years since they faked their own deaths in the explosion that rocked Shanghai, when a young man approaches them with a request to protect his fiancee. After Roma and Juliette save the woman from an assailant, she reveals that she once participated in an experiment conducted by a group of Russian scientists and Lourens Van Dijk, the man whose serum made Rosalind, Juliette’s cousin, immortal. Alarmed by Van Dijk’s involvement, the couple decide to probe deeper, and the answers they find compel them to ask old friends for help. Things pick up a few months later in This Foul Murder, when lovers Benedikt Montagov and Marshall Seo board the Trans-Siberian Express to find Van Dijk and bring him to Zhouzhuang. A gruesome murder at the start of the journey threatens to disrupt the train schedule, so Benedikt and Marshall take matters into their own hands and begin investigating to find the killer. The stories, while action-packed and full of danger, are less harrowing than the characters’ previous adventures. Flirty banter and tender moments between both couples are liberally sprinkled throughout, making for entertaining interludes that set the stage for the next book.
Will delight shippers and whet fans’ appetites. (Historical fantasy. 13-18)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781665934510
Page Count: 240
Publisher: McElderry
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
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
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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