A darkly exhilarating ride rich with unraveling secrets and intrigue.
When a god of the underworld goes missing, the balance between worlds is upset, leading to an increase in the Blight, a supernatural virus, and the number of infected souls called Revenants.
Lin Rui is the top cadet at the Exorcist Guild; she’s skilled in combat against Revenants and possesses unusually high levels of magic due to the circumstances surrounding her birth. Her primary ambition is to exact revenge on the Hybrid monster responsible for her mother’s death. Rather than grotesque monsters, Hybrids are sentient Revenants who resemble humans—and many people don’t believe they even exist. Rui secretly visits a young man named Zizi, an eclectic underground mage who specializes in powerful spells, and feelings of attraction grow between them. Their fates become entangled with that of Song Yiran, a nonmagical normie, when he’s attacked by a Hybrid. When nothing else works, Rui uses one of Zizi’s experimental spells, transferring her magic to Yiran, who’s able to destroy the Hybrid, saving them both. Fearing the political repercussions of using Zizi’s spell, which has left Rui a normie and Yiran brimming with spiritual energy, the three seek to secretly reverse the spell. The tight narrative shifts viewpoints: One storyline follows underworld god Ten as he searches for his missing brother, Four, leading to a climax that pulls everything together. This duology opener is richly infused with Chinese and Southeast Asian cultural elements.
A darkly exhilarating ride rich with unraveling secrets and intrigue. (cultural note, author’s note) (Fantasy. 14-18)Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063283848
Page Count: 400
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head.
The finely drawn characters capture readers’ attention in this debut.
Autumn and Phineas, nicknamed Finny, were born a week apart; their mothers are still best friends. Growing up, Autumn and Finny were like peas in a pod despite their differences: Autumn is “quirky and odd,” while Finny is “sweet and shy and everyone like[s] him.” But in eighth grade, Autumn and Finny stop being friends due to an unexpected kiss. They drift apart and find new friends, but their friendship keeps asserting itself at parties, shared holiday gatherings and random encounters. In the summer after graduation, Autumn and Finny reconnect and are finally ready to be more than friends. But on August 8, everything changes, and Autumn has to rely on all her strength to move on. Autumn’s coming-of-age is sensitively chronicled, with a wide range of experiences and events shaping her character. Even secondary characters are well-rounded, with their own histories and motivations.
There’s not much plot here, but readers will relish the opportunity to climb inside Autumn’s head. (Fiction. 14 & up)Pub Date: April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4022-7782-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind.
In this companion novel to 2013’s If He Had Been With Me, three characters tell their sides of the story.
Finn’s narrative starts three days before his death. He explores the progress of his unrequited love for best friend Autumn up until the day he finally expresses his feelings. Finn’s story ends with his tragic death, which leaves his close friends devastated, unmoored, and uncertain how to go on. Jack’s section follows, offering a heartbreaking look at what it’s like to live with grief. Jack works to overcome the anger he feels toward Sylvie, the girlfriend Finn was breaking up with when he died, and Autumn, the girl he was preparing to build his life around (but whom Jack believed wasn’t good enough for Finn). But when Jack sees how Autumn’s grief matches his own, it changes their understanding of one another. Autumn’s chapters trace her life without Finn as readers follow her struggles with mental health and balancing love and loss. Those who have read the earlier book will better connect with and feel for these characters, particularly since they’ll have a more well-rounded impression of Finn. The pain and anger is well written, and the novel highlights the most troublesome aspects of young adulthood: overconfidence sprinkled with heavy insecurities, fear-fueled decisions, bad communication, and brash judgments. Characters are cued white.
A heavy read about the harsh realities of tragedy and their effects on those left behind. (author’s note, content warning) (Fiction. 14-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781728276229
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
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