A disappointing follow-up to a promising first chapter.
The city of Philadelphia continues to turn wild after dark in this sequel to Nightstruck (2016).
When the sun goes down on the quarantined city, chaos reigns while innocents huddle safely inside. Vandals and hoodlums calling themselves “the Nightstruck” roam the streets doing whatever they please, and now 17-year-old white teen Becket is one of them. The devastatingly handsome—and inhuman—leader of the Nightstruck, Aleric, wants Becket for himself, but Becket can’t quite give herself over to him. Meanwhile, the rest of the world tries to figure out what to do with the cursed city. The first half of the novel submerges Becket in the devil-may-care world of the Nightstruck, but the chaos overstays its welcome. There are plenty of mysteries surrounding this nightly curse, but spending all this time with burglars and sex fiends does little to illuminate them. The characters remain stagnant for this entry, and, in a classic middle-volume sag, the story concludes with characters right back where they were at the end of the last book. Most disappointing is the absence of scares. The previous entry was filled with bumps and thumps in the night, but now that entire scenes are set with monsters in the background, the spark is gone. The remains are a plodding mystery that characters are barely interested in. If the characters don’t care, why should readers?
A disappointing follow-up to a promising first chapter. (Thriller. 12-16)Pub Date: May 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8006-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Tor Teen
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2017
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play.
Garber returns to the world of bestseller Caraval (2017), this time with the focus on younger, more daring sister Donatella.
Valenda, capital of the empire, is host to the second of Legend’s magical games in a single year, and while Scarlett doesn’t want to play again, blonde Tella is eager for a chance to prove herself. She is haunted by the memory of her death in the last game and by the cursed Deck of Destiny she used as a child which foretold her loveless future. Garber has changed many of the rules of her expanding world, which now appears to be infused with magic and evil Fates. Despite a weak plot and ultraviolet prose (“He tasted like exquisite nightmares and stolen dreams, like the wings of fallen angels, and bottles of fresh moonlight.”), this is a tour de force of imagination. Themes of love, betrayal, and the price of magic (and desire) swirl like Caraval’s enchantments, and Dante’s sensuous kisses will thrill readers as much as they do Tella. The convoluted machinations of the Prince of Hearts (one of the Fates), Legend, and even the empress serve as the impetus for Tella’s story and set up future volumes which promise to go bigger. With descriptions focusing primarily on clothing, characters’ ethnicities are often indeterminate.
Dark, seductive, but over-the-top: Characters and book alike will enthrall those who choose to play. (glossary) (Fantasy. 12-16)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-09531-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel,...
Adventure drags our heroine all over the map of fantasyland while giving her the opportunity to use her smarts.
Elisa—Princess Lucero-Elisa de Riqueza of Orovalle—has been chosen for Service since the day she was born, when a beam of holy light put a Godstone in her navel. She's a devout reader of holy books and is well-versed in the military strategy text Belleza Guerra, but she has been kept in ignorance of world affairs. With no warning, this fat, self-loathing princess is married off to a distant king and is embroiled in political and spiritual intrigue. War is coming, and perhaps only Elisa's Godstone—and knowledge from the Belleza Guerra—can save them. Elisa uses her untried strategic knowledge to always-good effect. With a character so smart that she doesn't have much to learn, body size is stereotypically substituted for character development. Elisa’s "mountainous" body shrivels away when she spends a month on forced march eating rat, and thus she is a better person. Still, it's wonderfully refreshing to see a heroine using her brain to win a war rather than strapping on a sword and charging into battle.
Despite the stale fat-to-curvy pattern, compelling world building with a Southern European, pseudo-Christian feel, reminiscent of Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful (2002), keeps this entry fresh. (Fantasy. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-202648-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2011
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