Golding’s series about epic environmental danger continues its steady, gentle tone. Connie, Col and some relatives and friends are members of a secret Society, charged with protecting pegasi, frost wolves, water sprites and other creatures assumed to be imaginary. Each human is companion to one type of creature, except Connie, who’s a Universal. She’s vastly powerful, but her training’s been vague and mentorless. When she inadvertently conjures dangerous weather, the Society panics. A sour trustee expels Connie, while loyal friends cautiously venture inside her mind, seeking the hidden darkness that causes her to raise storms. It’s the mark of evil Kullervo, who left a contact point inside her in the past. Kullervo is evil’s embodiment, and he’s also nature’s vengeance for human pollution. Golding’s physical scope stays safely within a small coastal region and shoreline, but the battle affects all of earth’s humans and wildlife. Global warming and psychoanalytic symbolism move to the forefront; some readers may wish for a less victimized heroine, but earnest narration and an ocean battle carry the day. (Fantasy. 9-14)
Pub Date: May 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-7614-5302-4
Page Count: 269
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2008
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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This promising debut is set in a dying underground city. Ember, which was founded and stocked with supplies centuries ago by “The Builders,” is now desperately short of food, clothes, and electricity to keep the town illuminated. Lina and Doon find long-hidden, undecipherable instructions that send them on a perilous mission to find what they believe must exist: an exit door from their disintegrating town. In the process, they uncover secret governmental corruption and a route to the world above. Well-paced, this contains a satisfying mystery, a breathtaking escape over rooftops in darkness, a harrowing journey into the unknown and cryptic messages for readers to decipher. The setting is well-realized with the constraints of life in the city intriguingly detailed. The likable protagonists are not only courageous but also believably flawed by human pride, their weaknesses often complementing each other in interesting ways. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers clamoring for the next installment. (Fiction. 9-13)
Pub Date: May 27, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-82273-9
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003
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