Transcending genre clichés, this series opener unfolds with a gripping emotional intensity, raising expectations for future...
Leath is torn between her long-standing love for Victor, comfortable and dependable, and her requited longing for James, a total stranger who is literally the boy of her dreams.
When James transfers into Leath’s small-town, North Carolina high school, she recognizes him—he’s shared her dreams for years—and learns he’s been searching for her. Since her father’s death several years earlier, her mother’s life has revolved around work and Leath, a junior who will be departing for college. As James and Leath grow closer, Victor, previously patient, grows jealous—with reason. Leath’s friend Anamae is more understanding. Leath’s affection for Victor pales next to the passion she feels for James. Yet his possessiveness scares her. Who is James? His account doesn’t add up. Even as he reveals the strange truth behind his arrival, James hesitates; which path they choose will determine their future, and all choices involve loss. Meanwhile, Leath asserts her own right to decide. To do so, she’ll need to remember the past the way it really happened. Latino Victor excepted, Leath and other characters appear white, while James’ and Anamae’s races are unspecified. While Leath’s agonizing indecision is overstressed (the gender roles mostly adhere to typical romance memes and tropes), her struggle to make her own choices is compelling.
Transcending genre clichés, this series opener unfolds with a gripping emotional intensity, raising expectations for future installments. (Paranormal romance. 12-16)Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63422-286-0
Page Count: 309
Publisher: Clean Teen
Review Posted Online: April 9, 2018
In a now familiar format, Krull (Lives of the Artist, 1995, etc.) introduces prognosticators from Nostradamus and Hildegard of Bingen to Jules Verne, Nicholas Black Elk, Jeane Dixon, Marshall McLuhan, and the anonymous Mayan creators of a calendar that shows a major cataclysm coming on December 21, 2012. Along with short lists of hits and misses, every chapter combines biographical tidbits, analyses, and cultural snapshots, illuminating both the prophets’ characters and their eras. Brooker’s tableaux incorporate paint, clipped photographs, and bits of cloth and leather for portraits that are less satiric than the caricatures Kathryn Hewitt created for the previous books in the series. On whether her subjects could see the future, the author has it both ways, suggesting “a gift, a talent, a special genius beyond rational explanation,” nourished by tremendous curiosity, uncommon listening and research skills, and the courage to go out on a limb. (further reading, index) (Biography. 10-13)
Pub Date: June 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-689-81295-7
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Skip.
Wisconsin teen Daniel Byers continues to have strange visions in the conclusion to the trilogy that began with Blur (2014).
Daniel’s visions, or “blurs,” have helped him solve a few crimes, but that doesn’t mean he wants to make a career out of it. Daniel still hopes to get a basketball scholarship to college, and a prestigious basketball camp in Atlanta has offered him a free ride. Daniel and three of his friends head south to the camp, but it doesn’t take long for Daniel to get sidetracked by mysterious agencies that hope to recruit him for a specialized task force crewed by other teens with gifts. Periodic cutaways from Daniel’s story give readers glimpses of these shady maneuverings and then of Daniel’s friends’ efforts to reunite with him. Despite these attempts to raise suspense, plotting is dull and cumbersome, and characterization is slight. Conversations among Daniel and his friends drag out the proceedings. This is seemingly the final book in James’ trilogy, but it comes with none of the pomp and circumstance most finales have. Things just tidily end themselves, leaving readers with the most frustrating feeling of all: the feeling of wasted time.
Skip. (Paranormal thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5039-3345-3
Page Count: 434
Publisher: Skyscape
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2016
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.
