A post-apocalyptic adventure novel that delivers an adolescent monster mash.
In Hanson’s YA debut, a 13-year-old finds himself stranded on a hostile, plague-ridden alien world, hunted by mutated humans and a fiendish monster-maker who covets his DNA.
Spacefaring humanity barely survived the Virus, an extraterrestrial plague that ravaged Earth and its far-flung mining colonies on other planets. Gideon Wells is the adolescent son of husband-and-wife scientists who fought against the scourge; his father fled to one of the off-world colonies (called “Off World,” in fact), while his mother managed to find a cure for Gideon, among others—but not in time to spare herself and millions of other people. Gideon is now an outcast in a boarding school–like Quarantine complex, but he’s a skilled pilot who’s eager to redeem his family legacy by flying vital medicine to Off World. It’s practically a suicide mission, though: the mining planet is crawling with deadly native predators, including plants with flesh-melting saliva. The human colonists, mostly miners, carry the Virus, which has combined with curative serum to turn them into ill-tempered, purple-skinned people who can transform into fanged monstrosities. Gideon and his few allies (including his romantic interest, a crossbow-wielding Irish girl resonant of Katniss Everdeen) are pursued not only by fierce Off World creatures, but also by ravenous “Rippers” created by a megalomaniac scientist named Gwendolyn, who wants Gideon’s DNA for a special project. It turns out that she’s also Gideon’s absentee father’s former lab assistant. Readers may find it a bit much when family squabbles erupt during bloody battles and attacks by para-human lynch mobs. Still, they won’t be able to say that this novel lacks action. Indeed, the story spills so much blood that, if there were some other R-rated elements, it could easily be called splatterpunk. The plucky, aggressive young hero absorbs massive physical punishment along the way but keeps rallying. This fact provides a major clue to one of several twists in the book’s third act, which leaves enough story strands dangling for a potential sequel. Overall, the characterizations lean toward the broad side, but fans of comic-book fiends and feats will be sated.
A post-apocalyptic adventure novel that delivers an adolescent monster mash.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Jan. 6, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.
In this YA graphic novel, an alienated Métis girl learns about her people’s Canadian history.
Métis teenager Echo Desjardins finds herself living in a home away from her mother, attending a new school, and feeling completely lonely as a result. She daydreams in class and wanders the halls listening to a playlist of her mother’s old CDs. At home, she shuts herself up in her room. But when her history teacher begins to lecture about the Pemmican Wars of early 1800s Saskatchewan, Echo finds herself swept back to that time. She sees the Métis people following the bison with their mobile hunting camp, turning the animals’ meat into pemmican, which they sell to the Northwest Company in order to buy supplies for the winter. Echo meets a young girl named Marie, who introduces Echo to the rhythms of Métis life. She finally understands what her Métis heritage actually means. But the joys are short-lived, as conflicts between the Métis and their rivals in the Hudson Bay Company come to a bloody head. The tragic history of her people will help explain the difficulties of the Métis in Echo’s own time, including those of her mother and the teen herself. Accompanied by dazzling art by Henderson (A Blanket of Butterflies, 2017, etc.) and colorist Yaciuk (Fire Starters, 2016, etc.), this tale is a brilliant bit of time travel. Readers are swept back to 19th-century Saskatchewan as fully as Echo herself. Vermette’s (The Break, 2017, etc.) dialogue is sparse, offering a mostly visual, deeply contemplative juxtaposition of the present and the past. Echo’s eventual encounter with her mother (whose fate has been kept from readers up to that point) offers a powerful moment of connection that is both unexpected and affecting. “Are you…proud to be Métis?” Echo asks her, forcing her mother to admit, sheepishly: “I don’t really know much about it.” With this series opener, the author provides a bit more insight into what that means.
A sparse, beautifully drawn story about a teen discovering her heritage.Pub Date: March 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-55379-678-7
Page Count: 48
Publisher: HighWater Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship.
A battered girl and an injured rugby star spark up an ill-advised romance at an Irish secondary school.
Beautiful, waiflike, 15-year-old Shannon has lived her entire life in Ballylaggin. Alternately bullied at school and beaten by her ne’er-do-well father, she’s hopeful for a fresh start at Tommen, a private school. Seventeen-year-old Johnny, who has a hair-trigger temper and a severe groin injury, is used to Dublin’s elite-level rugby but, since his family’s move to County Cork, is now stuck captaining Tommen’s middling team. When Johnny angrily kicks a ball and knocks Shannon unconscious (“a soft female groan came from her lips”), a tentative relationship is born. As the two grow closer, Johnny’s past and Shannon’s present become serious obstacles to their budding love, threatening Shannon’s safety. Shannon’s portrayal feels infantilized (“I looked down at the tiny little female under my arm”), while Johnny comes across as borderline obsessive (“I knew I shouldn’t be touching her, but how the hell could I not?”). Uneven pacing and choppy sentences lead to a sudden climax and an unsatisfyingly abrupt ending. Repetitive descriptions, abundant and misogynistic dialogue (Johnny, to his best friend: “who’s the bitch with a vagina now?”), and graphic violence also weigh down this lengthy tome (considerably trimmed down from its original, self-published length). The cast of lively, well-developed supporting characters, especially Johnny’s best friend and Shannon’s protective older brother, is a bright spot. Major characters read white.
A troubling depiction of an unhealthy relationship. (author’s note, pronunciations, glossary, song moments, playlists) (Romance. 16-18)Pub Date: Nov. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9781728299945
Page Count: 626
Publisher: Bloom Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
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